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THE 



FLORIDA OF TO-DAY 



A GUIDE FOR TOURISTS 
AND SETTLERS 



BY 



JAMES WOOD DAVIDSON, A.M. 

AUTHOR OF " THE LIVING WRITERS OF THE SOUTH " ; 
''A SCHOOL HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA" ; "THE CORRESPONDENT" 
"the POETRY OF THE FUTURE," ETC. 



WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 




NEW YORK 
APPLETON AND COMPANY 

1889 



Copyright, 1888, 
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 






L^- 



r> 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 












PAGE 


I. History . . . 7 


Discoveries 








1 


Settlement .... 








12 


Cession to Great Britain . 










15 


Ketrocession to Spain. 










IT 


Cession to the United States 










17 


Territory of Florida . 










17 


Seminole Wars . 










18 


State of Florida 












25 


Secession . 












26 


Reconstruction 












26 


Restoration 












26 


11. Geography . 












38 


III. Climate 












33 


Temperature 












33 


Humidity . 












35 


IV. Divisions 












41 


First, North Florida . 










42 


Second, Semi-tropical Florida 










43 


Third, Subtropical Florida . 










43 


V. Health .... 










52 


Malaria .... 










52 


Tornadoes .... 










58 


VI. Geology .... 










59 


Industrial Features . 










63 


Mineral Waters 


. 










67 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Soils o . . 68 

Drainage 69 

VII. Travel ......... 72 

Ocean Routes 72 

Overland Routes 73 

Jacksonville 76 

From Jacksonville 80 

Indian River ........ 88 

Lake Worth 90 

Biscayne Bay . 91 

Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades . . . .94 

Key West 94 

Cape Sable. . . 96 

Tampa 97 

Tallahassee 97 

Cedar Keys .98 

Pensacola 99 

Appalachicola 100 

Wakulla Springs 100 

Silver Spring 100 

The Ocklawaha River 101 

The Suwannee River 103 

The Caloosahatchee River 103 

The Homosassa River . . . . . . 104 

Mounds 105 

VIII. Population 108 

Peoples 108 

Old Residents 108 

Northern and Foreign Immigrants . . . .110 

Negroes 113 

Indians 117 

IX. Education 127 

X. Productions . 130 

Oranges 130 

Lemons 136 

Limes 138 

Other Citrus Fruits . 140 



CONTENTS. 



Cocoanuts 
Pineapples. 
Bananas . 
Pears 
Grapes and Wine 
Grand Possibilities 
Yet other Fruits . 
Tobacco 
Cotton 
Silk . 
Lumber 
Rice . 
Sugar. 
Grains 
Cattle 
Sheep 
Goats 

Other Stock 
Poultry 
Gardening 
Opium 
Honey 
Out of the Waters 
XI. Sporting 
Fishing 
Hunting 
XII. Pests. . 
Insects 
Reptiles 
Land-Shark? 



PAGE 

, 141 
. 144 
. 148 
. 151 
. 152 
. 154 
. 164 
. 178 
. 182 
. 183 
. 186 
. 192 
. 193 
. 194 
. 195 
. 196 
. 196 
. 198 
. 198 
. 199 
. 203 
. 204 
. 205 
. 309 
. 209 
. 21Y 
. 223 
. 223 
, 225 
. 226 



Appendix : 

Railway Routes . 
River Routes 
List of Hotels . 



229 
231 
236 



MAPS AND ILLUSTEATIOlsS. 



PAGE 



Map of Florida Facing title 

Map of Divisions 41 

The Banana 51 

Street Scene in Jacksonville 78 

Street in St. Augustine 83 

Ponce de Leon Hotel 85 

Looking across Indian River 89 

A Hammock 92 

A Scene on the Ocklawaha Eiver 103 

Orange 181 

Orange-Trees 132 

Lemon 137 

Lime-Tree 188 

CoGoanut-Grove 142 

The Banana and the Pineapple 149 

Guava 156 

Mango 158 

The Date-Palm . " . . . . • . . . .165 

A Cypress-Shingle Yard 188 

A Hunter's Camp 218 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



HISTOEY. 

The early history of Florida — its discoveries, 
conquests, reconquests, cessions, and retrocession — is 
as varied and spirited as a romance. 

Discoveries. — It is agreed generally among the 
historians that Ponce de Leon was the first of the 
several discoverers. This romantic and enterprising 
adventurer, hunting the phantasmal Isle of Biraini 
— one writer calls it Boiaca — with its precious fount- 
ain of yoath, failed indeed to find that, but reached 
the coast of Florida just north of where St. Augus- 
tine now is, on Easter-Sunday, the 27th of March, 
1512. He landed the 2d of April, and named the 
country, known to the Indians as Cautio, Florida, 
from Pascua Florida, the day of his discovery. Mr. 
Fairbanks, however, states that the discovery was 
made on Pahn-Suudaj. Ponce de Leon did little 



8 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

else on that occasion than to land, erect banners, and 
baptize the fair land of flowers. 

Florida was next discovered by Miruelo in 1516. 
He got, it is said, some pieces of gold from the na- 
tives, which, on his return to Cnba, the general base 
of operations for the Spaniards at that early date, 
created great excitement among the gold-hnngry ad- 
venturers of that day. 

The next year, 1517, De Cordova led an expedi- 
tion of Spaniards to the new El Dorado ; but he was 
speedily driven off, and returned to Cuba to die of 
his wounds. 

The same year Alaminos came with three ships, 
landed twice, found no gold, and was soon driven 
away. 

In 1521 Ponce de Leon made another invasion 
of Florida ; but he found no gold, was baffled and 
wounded, and returned to Cuba to die, as De Cor- 
dova had done. 

Seven years later the Spanish fortune-hunters 
began to discover and to invade Florida on the 
western side. De ISTarvaez, in April, 1528, led an 
expedition of about four hundred men and eighty 
horses, which landed in Clear Water Bay. He 
landed with three hundred men and the horses, 
and marched northward along the Gulf- shore, hav- 



HISTORY. 9 

ing ordered liis vessels to coast along apace with 
his marching troops. The arrangement was a fail- 
ure. The ships lost sight of the troops, and, baffled 
in every effort to find them, months afterward re- 
turned to Cuba. The three hundred troops were 
all, in one way or another, destroyed, except four. 
These four remained seven years in the El Do- 
rado, became " medicine-men " among the Indians, 
and finally worked their way back, crossing the 
Mississippi Kiver, to the Spanish settlements in 
Mexico. One of these, Cabega de Yaca — the veri- 
table discoverer of the Mississippi River — wrote an 
account of these stirring events. While the ships 
were yet lying at Clear Water, a Spaniard, Juan de 
Ortiz, rashly ventured ashore, and was left there a 
prisoner among the Indians, known then as Mari- 
annes. He remained there eleven years — until the 
next discoverer came along — and had a sort of John 
Smith experience with a Floridian Pocahontas and 
Powhatan. The name of the interesting heroine of 
this adventure seems to have perished, but the 
Powhatan was named Hirrihigua. 

In 1539 De Soto, with a thousand men and 
three hundred and fifty horses, landed in what is 
now Tampa Bay, which he christened Espiritu 
Santo. Upon landing, he found De Ortiz, men- 



10 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

tioned above, who acted as his guide ; but, as it 
turned out, he knew almost nothing about the 
country. De Soto was in quest of reported " great 
store of crystal, gold, and rubies, and diamonds," 
that lay somewhere to tlie northward. He sent his 
vessels home, and set out overland to the region of 
treasures, wherever that might be. He reached 
Chicora, or Chicola — South Carolina, perhaps — then 
turned westward, and passed beyond the Mississippi 
River, which had been discovered years before, and 
named Rio Grande, by De Yaca. De Soto returned 
to that river, died there, and was buried beneath its 
paternal waters. Just three hundred and eleven of 
his thousand men finally reached Mexico. 

In 1545 a treasure- ship , sailing from Mexico for 
Spain, was wrecked on the eastern coast of Florida, 
and about two hundred persons escaped to the land, 
and thus unwittingly discovered Florida again. The 
most of these were murdered by the gentle Stoics 
of the woods, and the rest were enslaved. About 
twenty years later one of these slaves made his 
way to Laudonniere's settlement, at the mouth of 
the St. John's River, and a few others reached the 
colony of Menendez at St. Augustine. 

In 1549 four Franciscan friars landed at Tampa 
Bay, with the idea of evangelizing the stoical abo- 



HISTORY. 11 

ngines, but the noble savages tomahawked three of 
them, and thns convmced the fourth brother that 
tliat kind of a conquest of Florida was impractica- 
ble — at that time. 

Ten years later, De Luna set out from Yera 
Crnz with fifteen hundred adventurers and a large 
number of zealous priests ; the former to pick np 
fortunes, and the latter to preach the gospel of 
peace to the cut-throat barbarians. He landed at 
the Bay of Pensacola, then called Santa Maria, 
pitched a camp there, marched into the interior, 
accomplished the loss of a good many men, and was 
ordered home. 

In 1562 Ribault came from France with two 
vessels and a colony of Huguenots, and made land 
near St. Augustine ; thence coasted northward, dis- 
covered the St. John's River, which he christened 
the May, and erected a monument of stone engraved 
with the arms of France. He soon re-embarked, 
and proceeded to make a settlement at Port Royal, 
South Carolina. 

In 1564 Laudonniere brought a still larger col- 
ony of Huguenots, landed where St. Augustine now 
stands, but promptly re-embarked and sailed to St. 
John's Bluff, and there built Fort Caroline. This 
colony struggled on for a year, and, becoming dis- 



12 THE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 

heartened, were preparing to return to France, 
when, in Angust, 1565, Eibault arrived with about 
six hundred and fifty other Huguenots, some hav- 
ing families. 

Settlement. — The same year brought Menendez, 
who arrived in July, 1565, at St. Augustine. Upon 
his arrival he heard of Eibault and his Huguenots 
at Fort Caroline, and promptly pursued his vessels, 
but without success. He then returned to St. Au- 
gustine, and built solid fortifications. Ribault ral- 
lied quickly, and set out to capture Menendez 
before he could complete his defenses ; but the 
French were driven south, and finally wrecked near 
Matanzas. Menendez was equal to the occasion, 
and, taking advantage of the situation, attacked and 
captured Fort Caroline. He hanged a number of 
his French prisoners upon trees, and put this in- 
scription over their hanging bodies : " I^on jpoi' 
Franceses^ sino jpor Luteranosr The victor re- 
christened the fort San Mateo, returned to St. Au- 
gustine, there first heard of Eibault' s shipwreck, 
hastened down to Matanzas Inlet, captured Ei- 
bault's straggling party, and, under the banner of 
the cross, butchered them to a man. 

This closed the efforts of the French to hold a 
colony in Florida proper. 



HISTORY. 13 

Menendez held liis post at St. Augustine, and 
this doubtless was the first permanent settlement of 
Europeans in the United States. 

In 1567 a gallant Frenchman, De Gourgues, got 
up an expedition to avenge the brutal massacre and 
insult of his compatriots bj the Spaniards at Fort 
Caroline. With three small vessels and a hun- 
dred and eighty-four men he came to Florida, 
adroitly secured the co-operation of the natives, and 
with these combined forces he surprised Fort San 
Mateo — the old Fort Caroline — and captured the 
entire garrison. He turned the merciful aborigines 
in upon the Spaniards, and a few survived. These 
De Gourgues hanged upon the same trees that Me- 
nendez had used for the Huguenots, and on a 
pine board over the corpses he wrote, " I do this, 
not as to Spaniards, nor as to outcasts, but as to 
traitors, thieves, and murderers." The avengement 
was complete. 

St. Augustine, meanwhile, was held continu- 
ously by the Spaniards; but holding was about 
all they did, except fighting off Indians. In 
1647 the city contained three hundred families. 
It was twice captured and burned down — once 
by Sir Francis Drake, who was returning from 
a freebooting expedition in the Spanish Main, 



14 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

and once, in 1665, bj Captain John Davis, a buc- 
caneer. 

Spain claimed that Florida embraced all the ter- 
ritory as far north as Virginia and westward to the 
Mississippi Eiver — in those early Spanish days 
known as the Rio Grande. Accordingly, when the 
English and Scotch began to colonize the Carolinas, 
the Spaniards began to fight them as intruders ; and 
the Indians joined whichever side promised them 
the most blood. Under this feeling, in 1676, the 
Sjoaniards sent a force to wipe out the English set- 
tlement at Charles Town, on the Ashley River ; but 
the expedition failed utterly. Again, in 1678, an- 
other Spanish force was sent for the same purpose ; 
and this one murdered many of the English colo- 
nists, pillaged a few plantations, and did a deal of 
petty damage. 

In 1696 the Spaniards, under D'Arriola, made a 
settlement where Pensacola is ; and, where Fort 
Barrancas now stands, they built their Fort Carlos, 
a church, and some dwellings. 

In 1702 the English Governor Moore, of South 
Carolina, captured and burned St. Augustine, but 
failed to reduce the fort ; and in 1703 he laid waste 
the Indian towns in Middle Florida which were 
under Spanish protection, so called. 



HISTORY. 15 

The Pensacola settlement was destroyed by the 
French in 1718 ; and the Spaniards, in 1722, built 
on Santa Rosa Island, where Fort Pickens now 
stands, and rebuilt Pensacola. 

These alternations of colonizing, building, capt- 
uring, rescuing, burning, rebuilding, reburning, and 
so on, were kept up between the Spaniards and 
French in animated style for several years. Indeed, 
nothing else seems to have received any attention. 
The banner of the cross of peace waved over the 
land, and the tomahawk kept the soil moist with 
blood. 

St. Marks was settled by the Spaniards in 1718. 

Spanish Florida had three aggressive and troub- 
lesome enemies — the English in Carolina and Geor- 
gia on the north, the French in Louisiana on the 
west, and the aboriginal tomahawks all around 
them. 

In 1713 the English Governor Oglethorpe, of 
Georgia, invaded Florida, and offered battle under 
the walls of St. Augustine ; but the Spanish 
adelantado Montiano, declined to go out, and Ogle- 
thorpe declined to go in — so there was but little 
bloodshed. 

Cession to Great Britain. — The treaty of peace of 
1718 between Great Britain and Spain closed these 



16 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

alternating forays and filibusterings. When this 
treaty was broken by the war of 1762, the British 
captured Havana; and in the treaty following, in 
1763, Great Britain gave Cuba to Spain in exchange 
for Florida. Thus Florida became a British posses- 
sion, and enjoyed a rest from Spain's magnificently 
little conquests of empires that had been going on 
so long. 

The Spaniards, during their two hundred and 
fifty years of occupancy, had achieved little beyond 
their numerous ostentatious conquests of nothing, 
much bloodshed and brutality, and a profound igno- 
rance of the country and its resources. At the date 
of the cession the European population of the terri- 
tory was about six thousand five hundred ; and of 
these many left the country at the transfer. 

The first British Governor, James Grant, took 
steps promptly to develop the country. Eoads 
were cut, colonization encouraged, and bounties 
offered for indigo and other productions. Dr. 
Turnbull and Sir William Duncan brought into the 
territory about fifteen hundred Minorcans and 
Greeks, and made a settlement near l!^ew Smyrna, 
in Yolusia County. 

Florida took no part in the war of secession in 
1776 known as the American Ke volution, and was 



HISTORY. 17 

a place of refuge for thousands of loyalists from the 
battling States, as it was later for fugitive slaves 
from the adjacent States. 

Upon the breaking out of war between Great 
Britain and Spain in 1779, the Spanish Governor of 
Louisiana invaded Florida and captured Pensacola 
in 1781. 

Retrocession to Spain. — In 1783, upon the close 
of the war, Great Britain exchanged Florida for the 
Bahama Islands, owned by Spain, and thus Florida 
returned to Spanish rule. The British settlers 
promptly moved out, and Spanish lethargy settled 
over the country again. 

In 1814, during the late war, the British sent 
a fleet to Pensacola and captured the forts there ; 
and General Jackson was sent to oust them. He 
stormed the forts and destroyed them. In 1818 
General Jackson again invaded Florida, in order to 
check and chastise the Seminoles. 

Cession to the United States.— In 1819 a treaty 
between Spain and the United States was concluded, 
and ratified in 1821, by which Florida was ceded to 
the latter power. 

Territory of Florida. — In 1822 the Congress of 
the United States established the Territory of Flor- 
ida, with its capital at an old Indian settlement or 
2 



18 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

camp called Tallahassee, although the first Legisla- 
tive Council met at Pensacola, and the second at St. 
Augustine. 

The Territorial Governors, with the beginnings 
of their terms, were : Andrew Jackson, 1821 
William P. Duval, 1822; John W. Eaton, 1834 
R. K. Call, 1835 ; Robert Raymond Reed, 1839 
R. K. Call, 1810 ; John Branch, 1811. 

Seminole Wars. — It was mainly during the terri- 
torial period that the worst of the Seminole wars 
occurred. These wars were full of stirring and 
tragic events, and but little variety relieved their 
bloody monotony. A detailed account of them is 
wholly unnecessary here. Speaking of the earlier 
Indian conflicts at the beginning of the eighteenth 
century — up to about 1Y20 — ^Mr. Fairbanks makes 
this comparison : " In every IS'ew England house- 
hold the story of the sufferings of the Williams fam- 
ily, of the Dustins, and of Miss McCrea, excited 
the most tender emotions of pity. The history of 
the Southern colonies presents hundreds of such in- 
stances." If it was hundreds then, it is thousands 
now. It is within reason to say that the history of 
Florida itself, as a Territory and as a State — 1821 
to 1860, say — can give a score of such tragedies for 
every one so graphically told in the school-books of 



HISTORY. 19 

all the ]^ew England States. But these have not 
yet been celebrated in song and story. Many have 
not been written at all, and are thus far recorded 
only in the hearts and memories of this silent South- 
ern people. 

Peace with these Indians is perhaps an impossi- 
bility, and had never really existed ; but the most 
important outbreak, known as the Seminole War, be- 
gan with the Dade massacre in South Florida in 
1835, and closed with the so-called treaty of 1842. 
But there has been much fierce fighting outside of 
that period both before and after. The word mas- 
sacre fitly describes the destruction of Major Dade's 
battalion in Sumter County. After the last man 
had fallen, Mr. Fairbanks states, " the Indians then 
rushed into the breastwork, headed by a heavy 
painted savage, who, believing that all were dead, 
made a speech to the Indians. They then stripped 
off the accoutrements of the soldiers and took their 
arms, without offering any indignity, and retired 
in a body." The story closes with these words : 
" Soon after the Indians had left, about fifty ne- 
groes galloped up on horseback and alighted, and 
at once commenced a horrible butchery. If any 
poor fellow on the ground showed signs of life, the 
negroes stabbed and tomahawked him. Lieutenant 



20 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

Basinger, being still alive, started up and begged 
the wretches to spare his life ; thej mocked at his 
prayers, while they mangled him with their hatch- 
ets nntil he was relieved by death. After stripping 
the dead, the negroes shot the oxen and burned the 
gun-carriages." One man, by something like a 
miracle, escaped to tell the story. 

There have been several causes assigned for the 
Indian's hostility to the white man — encroachments 
of the whites, individual wrongs to property, espe- 
cially cattle, etc. ; but the great underlying and 
essential causa causans has been the innate blood- 
thirst of the savages. The killing is sweet to them. 
This has shown itself ever since the Easter-Sunday 
in 1512 when De Leon, the fountain-hunter, first 
sighted the blooming shores of Cautio. 

During these wars the savages have times and 
again made agreements and treaties so called, only 
to gain time or to put the whites off their guard, and 
then resume hostilities whenever and wherever they 
could find a white throat convenient to cut. And 
yet the whites trusted them again and again. Gov- 
ernor Heed, in 1839, in his message to the Legisla- 
ture, said : " The close of the fifth year will find us 
struggling in a contest remarkable for magnanimity, 
forbearance, and credulity on the one side, and 



HISTORY. 21 

ferocity and bad faith on the other. We are 
waging war with beasts of prey. The tactics that 
belong: to civilized nations are but shackles and 
fetters in its prosecution. We must fight tire with 
fire." 

Gallant officers with brave soldiers were sent to 
quell the brutal work of Indian murder and pillage 
— Jackson, CKnch, Dade, Macomb, Belknap, and 
others — and all were bafl^led. Some of them fought 
well, and had edifying talks, and secured excellent 
treaties ; but the Seminole was master of the situa- 
tion practically, until General Worth went in 
1841. 

Our forces had captured Coacoochee, a chief, 
and several of his braves, and they were en route 
for the West, when General Worth sent to JSTew 
Orleans and had the party returned to him at 
Tampa. The interview between the general and 
Coacoochee took place on a transport in Tampa 
Bay, on the morning of the 4th of July, 1841. 
The general and his staff were seated, and the 
chief and his companions came forward heavily 
ironed, and sat do^vn on the deck. General Worth 
advanced, and, taking the chief by the hand, said 
to him : " Coacoochee, I take you by the hand as a 
warrior, a brave man. You have fought long, and 



22 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

witli a true and strong heart, for jour country. I 
take your hand with feelings of pride. You love 
your country as we do. Coacoochee, I am your 
friend; so is your Great Father at Washington. 
What I say to you is true. My tongue is not 
forked like a snake's. My word is for the happi- 
ness of the red man. You are a great warrior. 
The Indians throughout the country look to you as 
a leader; by your- counsels they have been governed. 
This war has lasted five years. Much blood has 
been shed — much innocent blood. You have made 
your hands and the ground red with the blood of 
women and children. This war must now end. 
You are the man to do it; you must and shall 
accomplish it. I sent for you, that, through the 
exertions of yourself and your men, you might 
induce your entire band to emigrate. I wish you 
to state how many days it will require to effect an 
interview with the Indians in the woods. You 
can select three or five of these men to carry your 
talk. Name the time — it shall be granted; but I 
tell you, as I wish your relatives and friends told, 
that, unless they fulfill your demands, yourself and 
these warriors now seated before us shall be hung 
to the yards of this vessel when the sun sets on 
the day appointed, with the irons upon your hands 



HISTORY. 23 

and feet ! I tell jou this, that we may well under- 
stand each other. I do not wish to frighten you, 
you are too brave a man for that ; but I say what 
I mean, and I will do it. It is for the benefit of 
the white and the red man. The war must end, 
and you must end it!^'' 

The wily chief made a diplomatic reply, and 
evidently counted on making his escape. Conclud- 
ing, he said : " I wish now to have my band around 
me and go to Arkansas. You say I m.%ist end the 
war ! Look at these irons ! Can I go to my 
warriors? Coacoochee chained! JSTo ; do not ask 
me to see them. I never wish to tread upon my 
land unless I am free. If I can go to them 
unchained, they will follow me in ; but I fear 
they will not obey me when I talk to them in 
irons. They will say my heart is weak, I am 
afraid. Could I go free, they will surrender and 
emigrate." 

General Worth knew his man. He told him 
that he could not go free, and reminded him that 
he had not proposed anything of the kind. He 
closed by saying : ''I say to you again, and for the 
last time, that unless the band acquiesce promptly 
in your wishes, to your last wish, the sun, as it 
goes down on the last day appointed for their 



24 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

appearance, will shine upon the bodies of each of 
you hanging in the wind." 

Coacoochee understood aright this time. He 
accepted the inevitable. He selected five of his 
men to carry his talk to his band in the swamps. 
The five went accordingly, and they returned with 
the entire band of about two hundred Coacoochean 
Seminoles. They all went West. 

This policy of General Worth's availed some- 
thing. But it w^as arrested midway by another 
treaty^ by the provisions of which nearly three hun- 
dred savages are yet allowed to linger in Florida — 
almost powerless for serious ill, but a nuisance and 
annoyance, without any compensating advantage. 

The heroes, so called, of this mongrel race, 
counting back a hundred years or so, are many — 
Secoffee, Pascoft'er, Osceola (As-se-se-ha-ho-lar, Black 
Drink), Jumper, Micco, Sam Jones, Micanopy, 
Alligator, Black Dirt, Arpeika, Chitto-Tustenug- 
gee, Coacoochee or Wild Cat, Emathla, Otulkee, 
Halleck-Tustenuggee, Aleck Ha jo, Tiger-Tail, Tal- 
lahassee, Billy Bowlegs, Hospetarkee, and so on to 
a hundred, each and all distinguished for some- 
thing. One is crafty and silent ; another, bold and 
talkative ; another, vigilant and far-seeing ; another, 
ambitious and boastful ; another, skillful and busy ; 



HISTORY. 25 

another, vulpine ; another, feline ; another, snaky ; 
and another, tigerj — but all blood-hungry and 
revengeful. 

These Seminole wars have cost perhaps twenty 
million dollars, and over thirty thousand soldiers 
have seen service in them, of whom about fifteen 
hundred lost their lives. 

In IS^ovember, 1843, General Worth estimated 
the whole number of Indians in Florida as fol- 
lows : of warriors, Seminoles, forty-two ; Micco- 
sukies, thirty-three : Creeks, ten ; and Tallahassees, 
ten ; making ninety-four warriors ; and, including 
women and children, three hundred in all. These 
were under Holatter Micco as head -chief, and 
Assinwar and Otnlko-Thlocko as sub-chiefs. In 
1845 Captain Sprague estimated the aggregate at 
three hundred and sixty. To-day, they are reck- 
oned to be two hundred and sixty-nine — statement 
given elsewhere — so that the race is not self-sus- 
taining. 

State of Florida. — Florida was organized as a 
State and admitted into the Union in 1845. 

The State Governors prior to the war of seces- 
sion were : W. D. Moseley, 1846 ; Thomas Brown, 
1848; James E. Broome, 1852; Madison Perry, 
1856 ; John Milton, 1860. 



26 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

Secession. — An ordinance of secession from tTie 
Federal Union was passed by a State Convention on 
tlie 10th of January, 1861 ; and the State joined 
the Confederate States in the struggle for State 
sovereignty in the war of secession, bearing its 
part bravely and well. 

At the close of the war a State Convention 
repealed the ordinance of secession. 

In 1865 there w^ere three Governors — A. K. 
Allison, acting Governor; William Marvin, mili- 
tary Governor; and David S. Walker, elected by 
the people, served until 1868, when reconstruction, 
so called, was regularly ushered in. 

Reconstruction. — Under a new Constitution, 
adopted in 1868, a new line of Governors was 
inaugurated. Beginning with that date, the follow- 
ing have been the Governors, wdth their dates : 
Harrison Eeed, 1868; O. B. Hart, 1873; M. L. 
Stearns, 1873 ; George F. Drew, 1877 ; William. D. 
Bloxham, 1881; Edward A. Perry, 1885. 

Restoration.-— The election of Governor Drew 
in 1877 marks the new era of prosperity in Florida. 
From 1868 to 1877 the reconstruction regime ob- 
tained. During that period party politics seemed 
to be the main pm^suit of those having the State in 
charge ; and other industries were dwarfed by mis- 



HISTORY. 27 

directed legislation or overborne hj onerous taxa- 
tion. The upward and forward impulse given all 
industrial pursuits bj the election of Governor 
Drew, in 1877, was well sustained and increased 
successively by Governors Bloxham and Perry. 
The extent of the rebound from the reconstruc- 
tional depression, or rather prostration, is clearly 
shown by Governor Perry in a communication of 
the 30th of March, 1888. He says : " I am glad to 
be able to say for my State that its agricultural 
interests are marvelously improving, that the num- 
ber and amount of farm mortgages and liens on 
crops are decreasing, and that farmers are more 
prosperous generally. Their lands are yearly in- 
creasing in value, and their general advancement 
is marked." The assessments for taxation for the 
years 1870, 1879, and 1887 bear ample testimony 
to the material advancement of the State during 
the period in question : 

For 1870 $29,700,022 

For 1879 32,794,383 

For 1887 86,265,662 



GEOGEAPIIY. 

Florida is the largest in area of the States east 
of the Mississippi River, and it has an area of culti- 
vable land greater than that of the six 'New Eng- 
land States. 

The political, judicial, and congressional divis- 
ions of Florida are not matters of special interest to 
the traveling public ; and, in view of the State as a 
place to visit or to settle in, thej are not important. 
In a general way, again, the State is divided into 
West, Middle, East, and South ; but this division is 
both vague and arbitrary, and comparatively mean- 
ingless. To the l^orthern as to the European read- 
er's mind the State is pretty much a unit ; and from 
this misconception has arisen much of the confusion 
of thought, conflicting opinions, the seesaw of vili- 
fication and overpraise, and the general wholesale 
inaccuracy^ that has been so lavishly written about 
Florida for the last twenty years. 

For the purposes of these pages — to give a cor- 



GEOGRAPHY. 29 

rect idea of the country in its salient and diverse 
features, and to picture it as it is to-day — the sec- 
tions of the State are three, which for convenience 
may be called I^orthern Florida, Semi-tropical 
Florida, and Subtropical Florida. The basis of this 
division is climate ; and the three Floridas will be 
discussed as separate in future pages. 

The physical features of this State, like its 
eventful early history and its manifold industries, 
are varied and diverse. The highest point in the 
State is Table Mountain, in Lake County; and 
though the barometric measurements have not been 
very close, a presumption is established that the sum- 
mit is nearly five hundred feet above the sea-level. 
Louisiana is the only State with a less elevation. 
The highest point in the United States is Mount 
Whitney in California, 14,898 feet. 

Florida is a land of water. In addition to its 
1,148 miles of salt-water coast, it has, scattered all 
over its surface, certainly 1,200 fresh-water lakes. 
These vary in size, from Okeechobee (the word is 
said to mean Eig Water), with its thousand square 
miles of area, to the picturesque little lakelet — for 
there are lakelets both large and small — with less 
than a hundred square feet. These lakes and lake- 
lets are nowhere stagnant and unseemly with scum ; 



30 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

but are of waters fresh, clear, bright, smiling, and 
wholesome, often good enough for general use, and 
even for drinking. Even the Everglade waters are 
pure and drinkable. This clearness and health-qual- 
itj appear as well in the chalybeate and the sulphur 
springs that are found in many parts of the State. 
The word " spring," in this connection, has great lati- 
tude of meaning; and some of the so-called springs 
are very large, as Silver Spring, in Marion County, 
two hundred yards in diameter, whose brook is a 
thoroughfare for a line of steamers, and the Blue 
Springs in Yolusia County, with a basin seventy 
feet in diameter and forty feet deep. Of this latter 
a State official gives the following description : A 
huge bowl, from the center of which a column of 
blue-tinted water presses upward with such force 
that the center of the surface is convex to the ex- 
tent of perhaps ten inches, and it is impossible to 
put or keep a boat on this summit, such is the force 
of the hydraulic pressure upward and laterally. 
The stream which this gigantic spring feeds is 
about fifty feet wide and of an average depth of ten 
feet, with a current of about five miles an hour. 
The Indian name of the St. John's River is Wee-la- 
ha^ meaning a chain of lakes. The following are a 
few of the largest lakes : Okeechobee, Kissimmee, 



GEOGRAPHY. 31 

Tohopokaliga, Istokroga, Monroe, Apopka, Eiistis, 
George, Crescent, Orange, Miccasnkee, lamonia, De 
Funiak, Santa Fe, and Buffum. The heights of 
these lakes vary a good deal, Buffum, in Polk 
County, being 138-26 feet above sea-level ; Ejs- 
simmee, 59*06 feet ; and Okechobee, 20*24: feet. 

About Okeechobee, and mainly southward of 
it, extend the Everglades, in the counties of Dade, 
Monroe, and Lee, with an aggregate area of fully 
seven thousand ^yq hundred square miles — nearly 
as large as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
The Everglade waters are, like all the waters of 
Florida, pure and clear, and vary in depth from a 
few inches to several feet, rarely more than ten. 
Tall grass, as high sometimes as eight or ten feet, is 
very common, with shrubs, vines, trees, moss, and 
all sorts of tangle and roots. Islands lie here and 
there, with trees and vines on them — cypress, pine, 
oaks, palmettoes, magnolias, and a score at least of 
other subtropical trees. Fish in infinite variety 
abound everywhere. 

The immense extent of sea-shore, almost encir- 
cling the State, is dotted with islands — islands of 
all sizes, from Santa Eosa Island and Key Largo, 
thirty to fifty miles long, to a dot big enough only 
to sun a turtle. Beginning at the mouth of the St. 



32 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

Mary's Kiver, at Fernandina, with Amelia Island, 
twenty-two miles long, on wMch that city stands, we 
have an unbroken chain — An astasia, opposite which 
St. Augustine stands ; scores of islands and islets 
along Hillsborough, Halifax, and Indian Rivers ; on 
down to the Florida Keys, numbering hundreds, of 
which Key Largo is the largest ; on to Key West 
and the Dry Tortugas ; thence northward up the 
Gulf coast, taking in the Ten Thousand Islands on 
the coast of Monroe ; and so on by Charlotte Har- 
bor, Tampa Bay, and Cedar Keys, to the island- 
dotted coast of Franklin County ; and on to the 
largest of all, Santa Rosa Island ; and finally on to 
Perdido Point. 

The rivers of the State are numerous, frequently 
serpentine, sluggish, and shallow, but rarely if ever 
stagnant. The principal streams are the St. John's, 
Suwannee, Kissimmee, Caloosahatchee, Withlacoo- 
chee, Apalachicola, Ocklawaha, St Mary's, Wakulla, 
Chipola, Peace, Manatee, Alafia, Homosassa, St. 
Mark's, Miami, Ocklokonee, and Ocilla. There are 
nineteen rivers navigable by steamers, to the aggre- 
gate distance of over a thousand miles. 



III. 
CLIMxVTE. 

The climate of Florida, considered as one, is ex- 
ceptional. It is, in some important respects, the 
finest in tlie world. Dr„ Baldwin, a prominent 
physician of Jackson\^ille, maintains that the State 
occupies a most favorable position in regard to cli- 
mate ; for the many modifying influences in oper- 
ation have produced, he shows, " a climate that for 
equability has few if any equals and do superior." 

Temperature. — As regards temperature, contin- 
ued observations in various parts of the State show 
that it is not excessive in either direction during 
the entire year, the range between winter and sum- 
mer temperature being only about 20°. The an- 
nual mean is 70° ; that of spring, 71° ; summer, 
80° ; autumn, 71° ; and winter, 60°. The following 
is the Weather Bureau's official statement of the 
temperature at Jacksonville, for the year 1837 : 

Annual mean 6S"1 

Maximum lOO'S 

Minimum 21-9 

3 



34 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



This maj be accepted as applicable for tbe northern 
part of semi-tro2)ical Florida, and approximately for 
the whole orange belt. 

The following table presents results given by 
the Signal Service. The figures for Florida are pre- 
sumably those for Jacksonville, for there are parts 
of the State where 105° has not been felt for a hun- 
dred years. The figures are degrees Fahrenheit, 
and the table shows the one point of comparative 
equability : 



PLACE. 


Maximum. 


Minimum. 


DifiFerence. 


Florida 


105 
105 
105 
105 
100 
105 
105 
110 
105 
110 
105 
110 
105 
115 
110 
110 
115 
115 


10 


— 05 
-10 
-20 
-20 
-25 
-20 
—80 
-25 
-35 
-30 
-35 

— 30 
—45 
-45 
-45 
—50 


95 




105 


Mississippi 


110 


Alabama 


115 


West Virginia 


120 


Georgia . 


125 


Ohio 


130 


Kansas 


130 


Connecticut 


135 




135 


Illinois 


140 


Nebraska 


140 


New York 


140 


Idaho 


145 


Colo''ado 


155 


Dakota 


155 


California 


160 


Montana 


165 







As the public mind naturally expects, and as the 
California press have demanded, a comparison of 
the two States in the matter of temperature, the fol- 



CLIMATE. 



35 



lowing figures are given from the montlilj weather 
review^ of the Signal-Service Bureau, for August, 

1885: 



In Florida. 

D3g. 

Limona 98 

Jacksonville 94 

Sanf ord 94 

Key West 94 

Merritt's Island 94 

St. Augustine 93 



In California, 

Deg. 

Fall Brook 115 

College City 114 

Murietta Ill 

Red Bluff 108 

Los Angeles 106 

Sacramento 105 



For September, 1885, the figures from the same 
review are these : 



In Florida. 

Deg. 

Limona 97 

Key West 92 

Merritt's Island 89 

St. Augustine 89 

Jacksonville 89 



In California. 

Beg. 

Fall Brook 110 

Los Angeles 109 

Murietta 107 

Poway 103 



These two tables answer the question whether 
California is warmer in midsummer than Florida. 

Humidity. — As to the humidity about which so 
much extravagant nonsence has been written, and 
which hasty writers have pronounced excessive 
and therefore objectionable, Dr. Baldwin insists, 
and with conclusive reasons, that it is one of the 
fortunate and favorable features, when consid- 
ered in the light of science. " Let it be remem- 



36 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 

bered," lie writes, " tliat the term relative humidity 
as used by meteorologists is not the same as absolute 
humidity " ; and then proceeds to show how this is 
true, in the following way : Absolute humidity de- 
termines the exact amount of vapor in the air when 
condensed into water ; while relative humidity has 
relation to the amount of vapor in the air when it 
will be condensed after the point of saturation 
is reached, and this point of saturation depends on 
the temperature and tension or force of vapor 
determined by the barometric pressure at the time 
of taking the observation. In relative humidity, 
the point of saturation is marked 100, and the 
figures in the column below 100 are the percentage 
of that quantity as existing at the time under a spe- 
cific degree of temperature and tension of vapor. 
Therefore, the point of saturation is variable ; as, for 
instance, when the thermometer is 50° and the 
barometer marks 30 inches pressure, a cubic foot of 
air then contains four grains and a fraction of water 
at the point of saturation, 100. When the tempera- 
ture is 75° and the barometer the same as before, a 
cubic foot of the atmosphere then contains nine 
grains and a fraction where the air is saturated, but 
still marked 100. At the temperature of 100°, 
pressure as before, the cubic foot of air at the point 



CLIMATE. 37 

of saturation will contain twenty grains and a frac- 
tion. Thus we see that the amount of moisture in 
the air at different temperatures varies in quantity. 
Therefore, the percentages given of 100 and the 
different temperatures must also vary, so that the 
same figures, although they may be correct percent- 
ages of 100, do not indicate to us the absolute 
amount of moisture in the atmosphere, unless we 
know the temperature which regulates each point of 
saturation. Time and space will not permit a more 
extended exposition of this interesting subject. 
Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, in 
an article on meteorology, says : '' It is not upon the 
actual amount of vapor which the air contains at a 
given time or place that its humidity depends ; but 
upon its greater or less degree of saturation. That 
air is said to be dry in which evaporation takes 
place rapidly from a surface of water or moistened 
substance. Hence, if relative humidity shows a 
small percentage of 100, the point of saturation in a 
climate where the absolute moisture is great, its 
effect in producing evaporation is the same as where 
the absolute humidity is less at the same percentage 
of 100, indicating saturation there." 

Accordingly, so far as Florida is concerned, it, 
with its so-called excessive humidity, is in that 



38 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

respect not less favorably conditioned than those 
places which boast of their dry climates, because 
their absolute humidity is less, and therefore more 
conducive to health. But the absolute humidity of 
this climate is productive of benefit in modifying 
its temperature. Yapor in the atmosphere regulates 
radiation of heat from the earth into the voids of 
space, thus preventing refrigeration and sudden 
changes of temperature, so inimical to the comfort 
of mankind, and so destructive to vegetation and 
the ripening of fruits. 

Professor Tyndall says : " The observations of 
the meteorologists furnish important, though hith- 
erto unconscious, evidence of the influence of vapor 
on the atmosphere. Whenever the air is dry, we are 
liable to extremes of temperature. By day in such 
places, the sun's heat reaches the earth unimpeded, 
and renders the maximum high ; by night, on the 
other hand, the earth's heat escapes unimpeded into 
space, and renders the minimum low. Hence, the 
difference between the maximum and the minimum 
is greater where the air is driest. Wherever 
drought reigns, we have the heat of the day forcibly 
contrasted with the chill of the night. In the Sa- 
hara itself, when the sun's rays cease to impinge on 
the burning sands, the temperature runs rapidly 



CLIMATE. 39 

down to freezing, because there is no vapor over- 
head to check the calorific drain." 

Professor Tjndall states the phenomena in ques- 
tion with further illustration, but the above is 
enough for this purpose. Dr. Baldwin calls atten- 
tion to the fact that the cool nights of the sum- 
mers in Florida, so highly appreciated by all that 
have experienced them, attest the fact that the 
(so-called excessive) moisture in the air does not 
prevent radiation. And again, during many winters 
when excessive cold has characterized the weather 
of the North, and the cold polar waves have been pre- 
cipitated upon these latitudes, the moisture-bearing 
breezes from the south meet them, and the moist- 
ure overhead is condensed into clouds that prevent 
severe radiation and protect them and their orange- 
groves from tlie intense cold that otherwise they 
should experience. But if, as has recently been 
their sad experience, those intensely cold winds, re- 
duced to a temperature below zero, be driven as 
northers down upon Texas and the Gulf and there 
reflected across to this State, the passage of them 
across the warm waters of the Gulf, although modi- 
fying their temperature, will still leave them cold 
enough to be destructive in their effects. But these 
pre-refrigerated storms of a foreign origin are rare 



40 



THE FLORIDA OF TO DAY. 



visitors to this clime, and do not count as indige- 
nous elements to this enjoyable climate. 

To put this matter of relative humidity in yet 
another light, the following table, taken by Dr. C. 
J. Ken worthy from official Signal- Service sources, 
compares Florida with several other States, and 
with two Mediterranean watering-places : 



Mean Relative Humidity. 





2 


Novem- 
ber. 


Decem- 
ber. 


Janu- 
ary. 


Febru- 
ary. 


March. 


Mean 
tVir five 
m'mhs. 






Per ct. 


Per ct. 


Per ct. 


Per ct. 


Per ct. 


Per ct. 


Jlcntone & Cannes 


3 


71-8 


74-2 


72-0 


70-7 


73-3 


72-4 


Nassau, N. P 


1 


76-1 


72-0 


77-0 


72-6 


68 4 


73-2 


Atlantic City, N.J. 


5 


'76-9 


791 


80-6 


77-3 


76-8 


78-1 


Breck'nridge,Minn 


5 


n&'^ 


83-2 


76-8 


81-8 


79-5 


79-6 


Duluth, Minn 


5 


74-0 


721 


72-7 


73-3 


71-0 


72-6 


St. Paul, Minn... 


5 


10-Z 


73-5 


75-2 


70-7 


67-1 


71-3 


Punta Rassa, Fla. 


5 


72-7 


73-2 


74-2 


73-7 


69-9 


72-7 


Key West, Fla. .. 


5 


77-1 


78-7 


78-9 


77-2 


72-2 


76-8 


Jacksonville, Fla. 


6 


71-9 


69-3 


70-2 


68-5 


63-9 


68-8 


Augusta, Ga 


5 


71-8 


72-6 


73-0 


64-7 


62-8 


68-9 


Bismarck, Dak. . , 


1 


76-6 


76-4 


77-4 


81-6 


70-6 


76-5 


Boston, Mass. . . . 


1 


68-0 


61-8 


60-6 


68-2 


63-7 


65-6 



IV. 

DIVISIONS. 



y^'^''y\ :Sorthem Florida 
^T^ Semi tropical " 
I ] Sub-tropical " 




But in fact there are 
three Florid as, three cli- 
mates, and three hygi- 
enic problems involved. 
In defining these three 
Floridas, the lines of lati- 
tude are not the divid- 
ing lines. The east and 
the west sides of the 
peninsula differ in temperature more than a degree, 
the east or Atlantic side being to that extent warm- 



42 THE FLO BID A OF TO-DAY. 

er in winter. Professor A. H. Curtiss, while en- 
gaged in a botanical exploration of the State sev- 
eral years ago, was the first to call attention to this 
interesting and important fact. He found that in 
its flora Cedar Keys on the west corresponded with 
Fernandina on the east ; and in the same way cor- 
responded Tampa with Daytona, Charlotte Harbor 
with Cape Canaveral, Cape Eomano with St. Lncie, 
and Chnkaluskee with Lake Worth. Lines con- 
necting these places respectively, may be called 
isofloral lines. Professor Curtiss concluded fur- 
ther that " Cape Romano on the western coast and 
Cape Canaveral on the eastern may be considered 
the points of demarkation between the temperate 
and the subtropical vegetation." 

In the light of these and other similar facts 
since developed, it seems fair to divide the State 
into three Floridas, as above intimated, basing the 
division upon climatic conditions. These three are 
(1) JSTorthern, (2) Semi-tropical, and (3) Subtropical. 
Taking these in this order, severally, there are : 
First, Northern Florida, lying north and west of 
a line from Cedar Keys to Fernandina, or perhaps 
better the tortuous line of the Suwannee, Santa Fe, 
and St. Mary's rivers — a region whose climate may 
be designated as southern. 



DIVISIONS. 43 

Second, Semi-tropical Florida, lying south of the 
above-designated line and extending to a line from 
the month of the Caloosahatchee River to Indian 
River Inlet — a reg^'on whose climate is semi-tropi- 
cal^ and which may be appropriately designated as 
the Orange Belt ', and, 

Third, Subtropical Florida, or all the region 
lying south of the semi-tropical orange belt above 
defined, embracing the Florida Keys. 

These three Floridas are distinct in general 
featm-es, chmates, and productions; but the divid- 
ing lines are in no sense sharp. These Floridas run 
into one another, and varying seasons press their 
lines northward or southward, and many conspicu- 
ous floral features extend over all. But the general 
demarkation is distinct, well defined, and easily 
noted. 

In climate the three are distinctly dissimilar. 
In Northern Florida the extremes — approximately 
stated, for illustration— are, maximum, 105°, mini- 
mum, 20° ; in Semi-tropical Florida, 100° and 25° ; 
and in Subtropical Florida, 95° and 30°. This in- 
crease of equability or decrease of range as we go 
south is at one with the scale covering greater dis- 
tances ; as, New York, Virginia, Florida — the ex- 
tremes always coming nearer as we go south. This 



44 THE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 

difference is the natural result of the decreased 
length of the midsummer day at points farther 
south. 

The difference between I^orthern Florida and 
Semi-tropical Florida — apart from and in addition 
to the difference of latitude — ^is largely due to the 
greater elevation of the former, and the distance of 
the Gulf Stream from it. The waters of the Gulf 
of Mexico attemper the immediate coast line in this 
region, but their effect does not extend far inland; 
and the obliquity of the dividing line is due mainly, 
if not wholly, to the warming influence of the Gulf 
Stream in the Atlantic. 

The GuK Stream is an immense factor in the 
climate of both the peninsular divisions. Coming 
directly from the Cuban waters northward through 
the Strait of Florida, pressed close to the shore 
along Dade County by the Bahama banks, it flows 
northward — this vast body of deep-blue water, a 
thousand times the volume of the Mississippi Eiver, 
thirty miles wide, and two thousand feet deep, with 
a velocity of fully -Q.ve miles an hour — the year 
round. The temperature of this enormous ocean- 
river is about 84:° all the time, and thus creates a 
constant stratum of warm air that floats over the 
land. The temperature of the Gulf Stream is fully 



DIVISION'S. 45 

nine degrees above that of the ocean- waters through 
which it flows, and it loses but one degree every 
five degrees of latitude. Sir Philip Brooke reported 
the temperatare of the stream as 80° at the point 
where the ocean-water was 32°. The stratum of 
warm air is borne westward across the land by the 
trade-winds which blow constantly from the east- 
ward — at least nine tenths of the time — summer 
and winter. The stream flows directly along the 
Florida coast from the point of contact — about 25° 
20^ — to Jupiter Inlet, 27°, at which point it leaves 
the land, getting gradually farther out to sea. Of 
course, its influence on the climate of Florida grad- 
ually decreases as it passes northward, but never 
ceases entirely. From the Indian River Inlet — the 
southern boundary of Semi-tropical Florida — north- 
ward to Fernandina, the whole coast is made both 
milder and greatly more equable than the Gulf 
coast in the same degree of latitude ; and this, as 
elsewhere stated, to the extent of more than one 
degree. And purity accompanies equability on the 
wings of these eastern winds. They strike the land 
of Florida fresh from the Atlantic, absolutely pure, 
and sweep across the peninsula, bearing with them 
whatever of malaria escapes dilution, absorption, 
and dissipation, thus putting the Gulf coast to a 



46 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

disadvantage so far as these influences extend. 
How far thej extend has not been determined, but 
certainly not verj far. Long moss is much scarcer 
along the Atlantic coast than in most other places 
in Florida. 

Thus it will be seen, and why, Semi-tropical 
Florida enjoys an equability decidedly greater than 
does ]^orthern Florida. This climate is that of 
I^orthern Florida with its extremes softened a little. 
This is the part of the State best known at the 
J^orth. The St. John's Eiver region has been so 
fully and so frequently written up and written 
down that readers can not need, here and now, to 
hear more of this beautiful orange belt. The popu- 
lar mistake is to confound this favored region with 
the two other Floridas — the [N^orthern and the Sub- 
tropical — while the difference is considerable. 

But the phenomenal effects of the Gulf Stream 
and the trade-winds are to be found on the Atlantic 
coast south of Indian River Inlet; and especially 
south of Jupiter Inlet, where the shore trends west- 
ward and the Gulf Stream bears rather eastward, 
making for a passage around Hatteras. It is this 
separation of the Gulf Stream and the shore that 
really marks the northern boundary of the sub- 
tropics. In this eastern side of Subtropical Flor- 



DIVISIONS, 47 

ida are found the four equalizing agencies at their 
greatest ; to wit, the Gulf Stream, the trade-winds, 
the Everglades, with water-surface preventing the 
land-breeze and its corresponding sea-breeze, and 
the zone of high barometric pressure. These 
agencies conspire to increase the mere latitudinal 
difference between Semi-tropical and Subtropical 
Florida. Here the midsummer heat that might 
otherwise be 95°, say, is reduced to something like 
88° ; and the midwinter chill that might otherwise 
be, say, 30°, is warmed up to something like 40°. 
The trade-winds, in bringing to the Subtropics the 
breath of the Gulf Stream, hurry off all incipient 
malaria into the Everglades, and thus keep pure 
the air of that eastern coast. The absence of 
Spanish moss from this region proves the purity 
of its atmosphere ; for, as a rule, in this latitude, if 
moss does not mean malaria, it at least raises an 
uncomfortable doubt in the premises. Here, also, 
as nowhere else on the earth except in the Island 
of Formosa, are to be found the most marked 
results of these exceptional climatic agencies — an 
equability greater than is to be found anywhere 
else in either of the grand divisions of the Ameri- 
can continent. As Florida considered as a unit is 
more equable, temperate, and healthy than any other 



48 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

State in the Union, so Subtropical Florida stands, 
at least in equability, in favorable contrast with the 
northern divisions of the State. 

In summary, then : 

The climate of Northern Florida, while its range 
of temperature is the greatest of the three Floridas, 
is still more equable than are the Southern States 
generally. Its greater range has its special charm 
to many, and its enjoyableness depends upon indi- 
vidual tastes. For those coming to Florida from 
higher latitudes, it is naturally the most attractive 
part of the State. The frosts are always light, but 
they mark definitely the seasons and destroy the 
insects, clearing the way for a new spring. Ice is 
formed every winter, and snow has fallen but once 
in forty years, and then barely an inch deep. This 
one snow extended over a considerable portion of 
the orange belt. This is the land of the Le Conte 
pear, as Semi-tropical Florida is the land of the 
orange, and the subtropics are of the pineapple. 
The semi-tropical fruits, almost all, including the 
typical orange, can be grown here in E'orthem 
Florida, and especially near the southern line ; but 
they do not attain the degree of excellence here that 
they do in their habitat, either in size or in quality. 
The influence of the Mexican Gulf water is consid 



Divisioys. 49 

erable on the sontliern border, bnt, as tbe Gulf 
Stream does not reach those waters, the influence 
is merely that of an ocean-frontage. There are, 
however, the dailv ahernating land and sea breezes 
which render grateful effects. Xorth of the range 
and reach of these breezes, the different elevations 
of land, with lakes, rivers, and springs, give pleas- 
ing variety in warm weather, and produce a most 
attractive Southern climate ; a climate vastly supe- 
rior to most of the written-up and classic resorts 
of the Old World. Messrs. Eeasoner, perhaps the 
best-infoi-med nurserymen in Florida, publish a 
very carefully prepared and scientific catalogue of 
fruits for this State. They give, as suiting farther 
north than the semi-tropical fruits, the following 
among many : Pears of several kinds, including the 
Le Conte and the Keiffer, pecan, Japan plum, and 
grapes. These all have Northern Florida as their 
habitat. 

The climate of Semi-tropical Florida, or the 
orano^e belt, is that of Xorthem Florida, modified 
by more water frontage, by the partial influence of 
the Gulf Stream, especially on the eastern side, and 
by the slight difference in latitude. The highest 
point in the State is well south in tliis division, 
and the number and variety of lakes in this 



50 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DA K 

mid-Florida lake region— there are three or four 
lake regions in the State — tend to make this 
one of great variety and numberless attractions. 
All these and many other delectable features have 
been given to the public again and again. This re- 
gion is the Florida of the legions of writers that 
in the last twenty years have lavished their praises 
and their abuse for the entertainment or the infor- 
mation of the Northern public. The fruits of the 
subtropics will many of them grow and mature 
here ; but the trees of such are smaller and the fruit 
inferior. The Reasoner Brothers, of Manatee, in 
their list of trees called semi-tropical have these : 
The whole citrus family — orange, lemon, shaddock, 
grape-fruit, and lime — fig, Cattley guava, pome- 
granate, and jujube. 

The climate of Subtropical Florida is that of 
Semi-tropical Florida, modified by a still greater 
proportion of water-frontage, by the full influence 
of the Gulf Stream, and by the slight difference in 
latitude. It is the most equable in the State. The 
authorities named above mention these tropical fruits 
as suitable for Florida, and it is perfectly fair to as- 
sume that they can not grow to anything like 
perfection anywhere north of the subtropics, and 
some of them even there are a little too far north : 



DIVISIONS. 



61 



The anonas, such as the cherimoja, guanabena 
(sour-sop), custard-apple, sugar-apple, the pineapple, 
sapodilla, cocoanut, niaugosteen, mammee, mammee 
sapota, Spanish lime, mango, aguacate or alligator 
pear, guava, ti-es, tamarind, and almond. 




The Banana. 



V. 

HEALTH. 

Geneeal health depends largely — indeed, almost 
wholly — upon climate. Almost all the writing 
abont Florida health — and of the popular kind it has 
been voluminous — has been about that part of the 
State elsewhere in these pages defined as Semi-trop- 
ical Florida ; and a patient public that has read Dr. 
Kenworthy on the " Climatology of Florida," Dr. 
Logan on " Climate-Cure," Dr. Blodget on-'' Clima- 
tology," and the more or less able papers of Drs. 
Baldwin, Lawson, Deuison, Lente, Lee, Johnson, 
Jacques, Wilson, and the rest, can hardly care to 
have the matter treated here with any fullness. A 
brief summary will suffice. 

Malaria. — A good deal has been written and said 
about the picturesque long or Spanish moss as an in- 
dicator of malaria. It doubtless indicates the pres- 
ence of certain elements — moisture and heat, say — 
that are often present where malaria prevails ; and 
it must be confessed that, other things being equal, 



HEALTH. 53 

the probabiKties of perfect healtbfulness are rather 
against the places wherein this banner of the 
marshes abounds. But there are many places in 
Florida entirely free from this moss, notably along 
the Atlantic coast quite near the ocean, as between 
26° and 27° ; and there are many places where the 
moss abounds that are free from the effects of 
malaria. 

Malaria seems to be the great bugbear of the 
partly - informed. The character and quality of 
malaria can both be ascertained, approximately at 
least, by finding the nature and prevalence of the 
diseases caused by it. These diseases are well 
known. Even in these, Florida stands better than 
any of the other States — better as to frequency of 
malarial fevers, and vastly better as to the severity 
of such cases. The fevers that are reckoned as 
arising from this cause are always milder, and yield 
more readily to treatment, than in most other places 
where they are found, and are almost never fatal or 
even very severe. 

A drainage company has been operating with 
thirty to forty hands, all white, since 1881, in the 
heart of the Everglades, where malaria is imagined 
to abound ; and James M. Kreamer, the chief en- 
gineer and general superintendent, in 1885, after 



54 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

four years of work there, in his official report, sajs : 
'' One of the best attested records as to the contin- 
ued healthfulness of this portion of the State is 
shown bj the reports respecting the condition of the 
force employed by the Okeechobee Drainage Com- 
pany, which has been operating on the line of the 
rich bottom-lands since the year 1881. Our em- 
ployes come from almost every State in the Union 
and foreign countries. During this interval [till 
1885], and after a continuous service, without in- 
termission, during tlie summer months, there has 
never been a death from any cause whatever ; and a 
physician in a professional capacity has never vis- 
ited our work. The health of our men, not only, 
but of the residents throughout this district, is un- 
impaired at this time." 

Surgeon-General Lawson, U. S. A., some years 
ago, in his official report, after making a detailed 
mention of the comparative health-merits of various 
places occupied by the army, gives this pointed 
summary : 

"As respects health the climate of Florida 
stands pre-eminent. That the peninsular climate 
of Florida is much more salubrious than that of any 
other State in the Union is clearly .established by 
the medical statistics of the army. Indeed, the 



HEALTH. 56 

statistics of this bureau demonstrate the fact that 
diseases that result from malaria are of much milder 
type in the Peninsula of Florida than in any other 
State in the Union. These records show that the 
ratio of deaths to the number of cases of remitting 
fever has been much less than among the troops 
serving in any other portion of the United States. 
In the Middle Division of the United States the 
proportion is one death to thirty-six cases of remit- 
ting fever ; in the J^orthern Division, one to fifty- 
two ; in the Southern Division, one to fifty-four ; in 
Texas, one to seventy-eight ; in California, one to one 
hundred and twenty-two ; in '^&w Mexico, one to 
one hundred and forty-eight ; while in Florida it is 
but one to two hundred and eighty -seven. In short, 
it may be asserted, without fear of refutation, that 
Florida possesses a much more agreeable and salu- 
brious climate than any other State or Territory in 
the United States." 

The sanitary qualities of the Florida climate are 
important. The best informed medical advisers 
send at least two classes of patients to this State — 
consumptives, or those suffering from some disease 
of the respiratory organs, and those broken in 
health without any well-defined special fonn of 
disease. 



56 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



Upon the former class of these — consumptives — 
the United States census reports give the facts 
embodied in the following table : 

Deaths from Consum2:)tion in 1,000 Deaths from all Causes. 



Maine 258 

New Hampshire 222 

Yermont 202 

Rhode Island 201 

Massachusetts 199 

Delaware ; . . 190 

Connecticut 1*79 

Ohio Ill 

West Virginia 174 

Kentucky 1*74 

Maryland 172 

New Jersey I7i 

Michigan 169 

New York 168 

Tennessee 166 

Indiana 164 

Pennsylvania 142 



California 188 

Yirginia 138 

Iowa 137 

Minnesota 133 

Wisconsin 131 

North Carolina 117 

Illinois 108 

Louisiana 97 

Missouri 97 

Kansas 90 

South Carolina 90 

Mississippi 76 

Alabama 71 

Arkansas 70 

Georgia , 68 

Texas 63 

Florida 58 



This table is better than a volume of arguments 
and laudatory generalities, especially when consid- 
ered in view of the patent fact that something like 
fifty per cent of the deaths from consumption in 
Florida are imported cases — cases sent thither, too 
often, when the patients were so far gone as to be 
beyond the hope of recovery. It is safe to add that 
cases of this class originating here are almost inva- 
riably inherited. 



HEALTH. 57 

Upon the other class of cases benefited by Flor- 
ida's sanatory climate — ^broken health, or brain-fag 
— a few words from Dr. Kenworthy, a man thor- 
oughly acquainted with Florida's sanitary and sana- 
tory features, may sufiice : " In this active business 
country we find many persons who have been over- 
worked and present a breach in the chain of those 
vital processes whoso continuity constitutes health — 
a condition popularly known as ' broken health.' In 
Florida, the worn-out man of business, suffering 
from ' broken health,' will find the necessary relax- 
ation from ' brain-fag,' opportunities to take out- 
door exercise, plenty of sunshine, pure and bracing 
air, and other necessary adjuncts to relieye a condi- 
tion affecting the many. In this connection I can 
not refrain from referring to what I consider an im- 
portant fact. From my observations in the United 
States and in foreign lands, and in hospital as well 
as in private practice, I have been forced to notice 
the infrequency of chronic disease and broken 
health in Florida. In my visits to various portions 
of this State I have met with many persons, old 
and young, who live from year to year on improper 
food, and who drink water from shallow holes, near 
marshes, and yet, singular to say (although such 
persons are somewhat ansemic), they do not present 



58 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY, 

any manifest diseased condition. In cities, to^vns, 
villages, and rural districts, where residents are sup- 
plied with proper food and drink pure water, a 
case of chronic disease or broken health is seldom 
met with. And if we have a climate in which 
these conditions rarely occur, are we not justified in 
concluding that it will exert a powerful influence in 
restoring the invalid to health ? As most of you 
are aware, I have at various times visited many 
portions of the State, and have been surprised to 
meet so many persons who have settled in it as in- 
valids, and have been restored to health or compara- 
tive comfort by the climate — a large proportion of 
them having been sufferers from pulmonary dis- 
eases." 

Tornadoes. — In the light of meteorological ob- 
servation during the past decade or two, it is per- 
fectly safe to assume that Florida as a whole is as 
safely out of the line and sweep of tornadoes and 
hurricanes as any State in the Union, and rather 
more so than some of the I^orth western States and 
Territories. 

So much for the climate of Florida as a unit. 



GEOLOGY. 

The geology of Florida is full of interest, mainly 
prospective, although no general survey has yet 
been made. Dr. J. Kost, the iirst and present 
State Geologist, has issued one report of results, 
and the public await with profound interest the 
further prosecution of the work. A preliminary 
inspection is all that has been thus far accomphshed, 
but that has afforded glimpses of rich treasures in 
the fields of both mineralogy and paleontology. 
Dr. Kost finds the geological formations of Florida 
to be '' the equivalent of the Tertiaries of the Paris 
basin in France and the vale of the Thames in Eng- 
land." He reports fossil remains, not only of the 
mastodon, zeuglodon, and carcharodon, but also of 
the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, llama, peccary, leop- 
ard, tiger, hyena, lion, camel, and elephant; and "a 
species of bimana." One of the three mastodon 
skeletons found is of exceptional size and will be 



60 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY, 

set up for the State Museum ; and it will be " the 
largest one of a mastodon on record ; and, next to 
that of the whale, the largest known of any animal.*' 

The mineralogical scope is also considerable. 
Dr. Kost finds lime, iron, and sulphur widely dis- 
tributed ; with silicon galore, and potassium, so- 
dium, magnesium, aluminum, and phosphorus. Oth- 
er authorities report lead. Agates of chalcedony 
and opal are reported as found near Tampa. 

E'othing has been discovered, it appears, lower 
than the Tertiary period ; but this is abundantly 
and fully represented in all its subdivisions. The 
Eocene is of considerable depth ; the Miocene and 
the Pleiocene, less ; while over nearly all lies a 
heavy spread of Pleistocene or Post-tertiary. 

The doctors disagree sadly as to the formative 
agencies that made this peninsula and their pro- 
cesses. Some years ago^ such men as Agassiz and 
Joseph Le Conte, after examining the Atlantic side, 
told us that this southward-pointing land was un- 
derbuilt by corals and upraised in successive tiers. 
Later, Heilprin explored the Gulf coast, and failed 
to find any confirmation of the coral-reef theory. 
He confidently asserts : " On the contrary, the ex- 
istence of the heavy fossiliferous deposits about 
Tampa, on the Manatee, along the tributaries of the 



GEOLOGY, 61 

Big and tlie Little Sarasota Bays, and more particu- 
larly those exposed on the Caloosahatchee, conclu- 
sively proves that a coral extension to the Southern 
United States, such as has been theoretically set 
forth, does not exist in fact." Of the coral, he 
maintains, the structure is limited and local. Dr. 
Kost thinks it almost absurd to venture upon any 
statements concerning the principles of the geologi- 
cal formation of the State. He adds, however, that 
when the Eocene rocks were in course of deposit, 
the Tertiary was reposing at the bottom of the sea, 
from one hundred to several hundred feet deep, and 
was, for a time at least, sinking slowly — that is, at a 
pace correspondent to the continuous building of 
coral reefs. This Eocene deposit, though new geo- 
logically, is in secular chronology very old, be- 
cause it dates back to a time anterior to the up- 
heaval of the lower half of the Eocky Mountains. 
In course of time, the bottom of the sea began to 
rise, at first slowly. During this period occurred 
the Oligocene deposits. Later, the dry land ap- 
peared, and the Miocene deposits were made ; and, 
in the after-age, the land was submerged again, the 
submergence embracing not only Florida but also 
Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and parts of 
Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas — the whole to 



62 THE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 

emerge a second time, and to rise to its present 
level. The State Geologist finds, further, that *' an 
extensive anticlinal, of an axis parallel with that of 
the peninsula, trends centrally through the penin- 
sula." There are to-daj indications, especially on 
the eastern side, of a rise of the land now in prog- 
ress. Dr. J. Dabney Palmer finds the origin of 
this peninsula in the changes wrought by the " rise 
of the Appalachian Mountains," which diverted tbe 
Gulf Stream from its former channel up the Mis- 
sissippi Yalley. This caused an eddy south of the 
then land ; and sand-bars resulted and sediment and 
coral insects followed. " And thus it has been go- 
ing on for ages — sand-bar and deposit, and coral 
reef. And thus the building and extension of the 
peninsula continue to this day. The gradual up- 
heaval of the land has lifted the northern and cen- 
tral portions of the peninsula far above the sea-level. 
This elevation will probably increase, and the Ever- 
glades become dry, even if not assisted by artificial 
means. The digging of wells, etc., has disclosed 
this great variety of formations throughout the 
State. It is not infrequent that as beautiful de- 
posits of coral are disclosed high up in the peninsula 
and Northern Florida as are to be found on the 
reefs south of Cape Sable. Should these causes 



GEOLOGY. 63 

continue, the deep channel of the Gulf Stream may 
be closed, Cuba annexed by natural causes, the val- 
ley of the Mississippi be extended, and the Gulf of 
Mexico become a fertile plain." The indications, 
along both the Atlantic and the Gulf side, are con- 
firmatory of the theory that the land is still rising 
slowly — more slowly, it is confidently believed, than 
the operations of the Atlantic Coast and Canal Com- 
pany's dredging corps. 

Industrial Features. — The industrial arts find 
some valuable mineral deposits among these roch 
materials. Dr. Kost states that several localities 
have been found to have large deposits of rich 
phosphates, deposits quite as rich in phosphoric 
acid as are the phosphate rocks on Cooper and 
Ashley Elvers in South Carolina, from which im- 
mense revenue has been derived. These Florida 
beds show phosphates of lime, of silica, of alumina, 
and of iron. They are indicated by phosphoric-acid- 
bearing rocks in the counties of Wakulla, Alachua, 
Marion, Hillsborough, and Manatee. In Wakulla 
the State Geologist finds a triple phosphate of lime, 
iron, and alumina, indicating exceedingly valuable 
beds, the samples analyzed showing in one instance 
23'85 per cent in phosphoric acid, equivalent to 
59 '05 per cent bone phosphate of lime (Ca3P208). 



64 THE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 

Shell marl of marine deposit is found in nearly 
all parts of the State, and inexhaustible fertilizing 
marl-beds underlie the soil almost everywhere. 

Limestone is to be found in nearly all parts of 
the State ; a large proportion of which, however, 
will not yield a first quality of lime. The rock is 
generally too silicious, and slacks poorly ; yet Pro- 
fessor Pickel, of the State College, found by analy- 
sis 98*67 of carbi3nate of lime, being equivalent to 
5246 per cent of quicklime. 

Clays exist, especially in l^orthern Florida, of 
which passably good bricks are made; but the 
presence of too much either of lime or of sand 
often prevents the best results in this direction. 
Clays sufficiently fine and pure for pottery are to 
be seen at various points, in lower strata, where 
coarser varieties occur. 

Kaolin has been found in numerous localities; 
but thus far little is known of its quality or quan- 
tity. 

Iron-ore is found in l^orthern Florida, and in 
Jackson County a "rather extensive deposit" is 
reported ; but nobody seems to believe that it exists 
anywhere in paying quantities. The ore is of the 
liraonite variety, and is not the best. It is to be 
found in all parts of the State. There are seve^-al 



GEOLOGY. 65 

chalybeate springs whose medicinal qualities have 
been tested. Dr. Kost thinks that a large propor- 
tion of the running water of wells and springs is of 
the chalybeate character ; in springs and wells these 
are commonly called sulphur-waters, because of the 
presence of sulplmreted hydrogen occasioned by 
chemical action. JSTearly all the clays are stained 
by " oxides of iron." 

Coal is present. Lignite has been unearthed in 
Northern Florida. Dr. Kost discovered, in Santa 
Rosa County, a vein about thirty inches thick. 
This Tertiary coal is similar to that found along the 
]N"orthern Pacific Railroad and used on that road. 
An artesian well, sunk during the present year in 
Marion County, it is stated, passed through a vein 
of coal some fifteen to eighteen feet thick, at a 
depth of nearly six hundred feet. 

Limestone, quarried for building purposes, exists 
in Northern Florida. It is, however, for the most 
part, soft, porous, and liable to imbibe moisture ; 
but the Union Bank building at Marianna, in Jack- 
son County, built of this material, has stood now 
some forty years, and is to-day in a good state of 
preservation. Chimneys are frequently built of it. 
It has been pretty extensively used in Hernando 
County for both building- walls and chimneys. 



eQ THE FLOPJDA OF TO-DAY. 

Flint-rock is available for rough walls, and 
will last till the end of time. This is found as far 
south as Sumter County, in Semi-tropical Florida. 
Arrow-heads, spear-points, and rude knives were 
made of this flint bj the Indians or their prede- 
cessors. In j^orthern Florida it abounds along the 
line of the railroad in Suwannee and Alachua Coun- 
ties. Dr. Kost says: "This rock was evidently 
deposited from solution by presence of lime and 
potash, with the silica in the waters of the later Ter- 
tiary, as the shell remains of the echinoidea, pecten, 
etc., appear with their own shell tissue, often m 
full integrity." 

Sandstone occurs in many places. It is soft, its 
cementing principle being impaired "by diffusion 
of aluminous materials previously oxidized." 

Marble, of stalactite and stalagmite varieties, is 
to be found in the caves of Jackson County and 
some other localities. Ceilings, floors, and walls of 
the caves are covered with this marble. It is in 
some instances beautifully white and translucent. 

Coquina — a shell limestone, as the name im- 
plies — exists in many places along the Atlantic 
coast. The texture of the rock. Dr. Kost writes, is 
very interesting, from the integrity of the shell ma- 
terial. It dresses moderately well, leaving a corru- 



GEOLOGY. 67 

gated surface of rather agreeable aspect. It is very 
durable, as is proved bj the integrity of the walls 
of St. Augustine, those of the old Spanish Fort San 
Marco, and of the old cathedral at the same place — 
some of these a matter of two centuries old. 

Coralline is abundant, especially on the Atlantic 
coast south of the coquina region. 

But concrete — of sand, shells, and lime or, 
better, cement — is more easily managed than either 
coquina or coralline, cheaper, and doubtless equally 
durable ; so that its use is likely to supersede both 
the other hitherto favorite building materials. It 
has been used extensively in several places, notably 
at Cedar Keys ; and, more recently, in a modified 
form in the erection of the palatial hotels at St. 
Augustine. 

Miueral Waters. — The great variety and abun- 
dance of mineral deposits in Florida naturally give 
numerous mineral springs. The mineral waters are 
in the main solutions of lime, alumina, and iron ; 
but magnesia, soda, sulphur, and potash occur fre- 
quently, and iodine and bromine somewhat rarely. 
Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Perpetual Youth has 
been discovered a score of times, pretty much all 
over the State, and the modern wonder is that that 
grandiose Adelantcido himself could not find it, 



68 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

when it is so numerous to-daj. Among the mineral 
springs conspicuous are the JSTewport Springs, on 
St. Mark's Eiver, in "Wakulla County ; the Hamp- 
ton Springs, of Taylor County ; the White Sul- 
phur Springs, of Hamilton County ; the Suwannee 
Springs, of Suwannee County ; and the Green Cove 
Springs, of Clay County. 

Soils. — The soils are usually classed as first, sec- 
ond, and third rate pine or sand lands, high and low 
hammocks, and swamp lands. 

Of the pine lands Dr. Kost says : " The sand 
deposits of Florida lands are very generally mis- 
judged. They are generally estimated by the tour- 
ist by what he has been conversant with in deposits 
of ' sand-banks ' in l^orthern localities, distant from 
the sea, which are generally wind-drifts or drifts 
from fresh-water bays or lakes, and the sand is quite 
liable to be clean and free from earthy or saline 
mixture. But here in Florida the accumulations 
are from salt-water bays or sea-coasts, and they are 
never free from marine salts, or more especially hav- 
ing the presence of the dust of marine shells, in the 
form of carbonate of lime from organic forms or 
shells of mollusca. Hence the sands of Florida are 
far more productive as compared to others than are 
those not of recent marine derivation. It happens. 



GEOLOGY. 69 

therefore, that tourists who have opportunity to in- 
spect growing crops on the ' sandy harrens ' are 
not a little astonished to see respectably good crops 
grown on such lands. Similar sand deposits else- 
where — that is, in the adverse circumstances — com- 
monly are found to be almost completely barren." 
Humus is the general need of the sand lands. 

Hammocks may be defined as hard-wood lands, 
the high being either alluvial or clay, the low being 
of infinite variety both as to wetness and to material. 

Swamps are either sand or low hammocks in 
process of formation. 

Drainage. — Germane to the matter of soils is the 
reclaiming of lands. In Subtropical Florida espe- 
cially there is much overflowed land, and a drain- 
age company has undertaken to reclaim lands on 
shares around Okeechobee as a center. Here are, it 
is estimated, about eight million acres of water- 
covered land — Lake Okeechobee, of a thousand 
square miles, and the Everglades, more than ten 
times that area. The company began operations in 
1881. In 188Y the Legislature sent a committee to 
examine and report results. They first visited Lake 
East Tohopekaliga, and their report states : " We 
find the lake eight feet two inches below its origi- 
nal level, with a handsome beach of firm white sand 



70 THE FLO BID A OF TO-DAY. 

three or four hundred feet wide, hard and level, 
where formerly was seven or eight feet of water. 
We find the surrounding marshes and cypress 
swamps are dry and ready for the plow. . . . All 
these lands are in the highest state of cultivation, 
with handsome crops of sugar-cane, corn, potatoes, 
and various vegetables, all vigorous and thrifty. 
The lands are exceedingly fertile, and though but 
recently freed from two to four feet of standing 
water, are now dry and fit for all crops of a tem- 
perate or subtropical climate. . . . Sixty-five tons 
of cane, seventy bushels of corn, seventy bushels of 
rice, have been raised per acre on these lands." 

All this is en couleur de rose certainly. 

Toward the draining of Okeechobee directly the 
Drainage Company cut one canal forty-six feet wide 
and ten feet deep from the lake connecting it with 
the Caloosahatchee River, which fiows into the Gulf 
of Mexico. The company seems to have published 
no report of recent results of this part of its 
work ; but Mr. John B. Hickey, of Fort Myers, on 
the Caloosahatchee River, writes that Lake Okee- 
chobee is now three feet below its normal level. 
Tiie immediate friends of this enterprise appear 
very hopeful of early and complete success. Many 
others are less hopeful. As Okeechobee is 20*44: 



GEOLOGY. 71 

feet above sea- level, and as tlie Everglades-level at 
Lake Worth is sixteen feet above that lake, and as 
the Everglades-level at Miami is 5*5 feet above that 
of Biscay ne Bay, it does not seem impossible that 
at least a great part of these Everglades waters may 
be drained off. It seems to be a question mainly of 
canal capacity. 

Writers on hygiene maintain that the condi- 
tions above given — removal of water from exten- 
sive areas of rich alluvial lands and cultivation of 
the same — must evolve malaria. The healthfulness 
of this reclaimed region, however, is vouched for, 
at least for the first four years of the Drainage 
Company's operations — up to 1885 — as appears in 
its report quoted elsewhere in these pages in treat- 
ing of malaria. It kept nearly forty white men at 
work summer and winter for three or four years, 
and had not a single case of malarial fever. This 
report goes far to prove that malaria is not as 
prevalent as is popularly believed, at least in that 
Everglade-lake region. What future developments 
are to bring forth remains to be seen ; and it is pos- 
sible that these very operations may change things 
in that regard ; but, to-day, assuredly there is no 
great reason to be alarmed about malaria. A very 
few more years of draining will settle that question. 



VII. 

TRAVEL. 

Teavel to Florida is increasing from year to 
year. Health, pleasure, and profit are the three 
guiding stars. These motives extend and increase 
with the development of the country ; and health, 
pleasure, and profit seekers rapidly become immi- 
grants and home-seekers. Over sixty thousand 
tourists visited the State during the past season. 

How to reach Florida is the tourist's first in- 
quiry. 

From 'New England, the adjacent States, and 
Canada, excursionists for Florida should make JS^ew 
York city their common point of departure. In 
that city all the great railway and steamship lines 
have ofiices, where full information may be got ; 
and tickets bought not only for Fernandina or Jack- 
sonville, but for numerous other points in interior 
Florida. 

Ocean Routes. — Of the water ways, the Mallory 
Steamship Line is an exc3llently appointed one and 



TRA VEL. 73 

very popular. Four iirst-class steamers ply between 
JN'ew York and Fernandina, Florida, leaving ]^ew 
York every Friday. These steamers are large, safe, 
and comfortable, bnilt of iron, three thousand 
tons capacity each, with deep draught and full 
power. 

Clyde's l^ew York, Charleston, and Florida 
Steamship Line, ]^ew York, has also four first-class 
steamers, two going to Fernandina and two direct 
to Jacksonville ; all of them generally stopping en 
route at Charleston. They leave New York on 
Tuesdays and Fridays. 

The Ocean Steamship Company have a full out- 
fit of steamers sailing regularly from Boston, New 
York, and Philadelphia, to Savannah, where they 
connect with the Savannah, Florida, and Western 
Eailway — the Waycross Short Line, which leads to 
Jacksonville. These vessels are large, convenient, 
safe, and first class in every way. They sail from 
New York three times a week, and from Boston 
on Thursdays. 

Overland Routes. — Eailway travel facilities are 
exceptionally fine. The Atlantic Coast Line is the 
shortest one from the East and North to Florida. 
The line runs three express trains daily each way, 
the time between New York and Jacksonville be- 



74 THE FLORIDA OF TO-LAY. 

ing about thirty hours, and by express train less 
than twenty-four. 

In addition to these rare facilities of speed and 
frequency, this line has during the present year 
taken some important steps in advance of ordinary 
travel. The recent vast increase of pleasure-travel 
has produced two coincident results— fine hotels in 
Florida and sumptuous means of travel to the State. 
The tide of fashionable touring and resort-seeking 
southward has set in within the past year or two ; 
and the health and pleasure resorts have been made 
to meet the demands of that class. The summer 
resorts of IS^ewport, Saratoga, Bar Harbor, Long 
Branch, . and Cape May are beginning to reappear 
with at least some of their features and hahitaes at 
St. Augustine, Pablo Beach, Rock Ledge, Tampa, 
Tarpon Springs, and Key West, as winter resorts in 
Florida. In response to the increase of this class 
of travel of late, the Atlantic Coast Line has put on 
regularly running Pullman vestibuled trains be- 
tween Boston and Jacksonville. These trains con- 
sist exclusively of drawing-room cars, containing 
each a library, reading-room, smoking-room, dining- 
cars, and sleeping-cars. The cars of these trains are 
so connected by means of vestibules that each train 
is practically one continuous car, with the conven- 



TEA YEL. 75 

iences of a well-ordered hotel. The trains through- 
out are lighted with electric lights depending from 
the ceilings. The traveler on these trains may 
breakfast in New York one day and dine in Jack- 
sonville the next. 

The Piedmont Air-Line has its advantages as an 
all-rail route between the North and the South. It 
runs double daily trains, with Pullman buffet and 
Mann boudoir cars, between Atlanta and Jackson- 
ville, making regular and close connections at At- 
lanta with Northern trains. The route from the 
North lies through the great battle-fields of Yir- 
ginia, the Shenandoah Yalley, the beautiful broken 
rolling country of the Piedmont region, which pre- 
sents some of the finest landscape scenery in Amer- 
ica. This connects also with the East Tennessee, 
Yirginia, and Georgia systems of railway. 

Cincinnati is the starting-point from the North- 
west region of St. Paul, Chicago, and Indianapolis ; 
and from that point there run through sleeping- 
cars and double daily trains of the Cincinnati 
Southern Railway and of the East Tennessee, Yir- 
ginia and Georgia Pailroad, connecting with the 
Savannah, Florida and Western Pailway to Florida, 
making the time between Cincinnati and Jackson- 
ville only twenty-eight hours. 



76 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

St. Louis is a fit starting-point from the great 
North-lS'orthwest, embracing Kansas, Nebraska, 
Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, Oregon, and the Territo- 
ries thereabout. From that point the Louisville and 
Nashville Railway runs two trains a dav, passing 
through the mountain-regions of Tennessee and 
Alabama, and connects, by way of Pensacola, witli 
the Florida Railway and Navigation Company's 
road, passing through Tallahassee and the great 
tobacco and cotton region of Florida. 

New Orleans is the starting-point for the South- 
west — Mexico, California, Texas, Arkansas, Louisi- 
ana, and Mississippi. There the traveler may take 
the Louisville and Nashville Railway, to River 
Junction on the Chattahoochee River ; thence, by the 
Savannah, Florida and Western Railway, through 
Thomas ville and Way cross ; or by the Florida Rail- 
way or Short Line, which passes several points of 
interest — the Olustee battle-ground, the Suwannee 
River, and other attractive scenery in Western and 
Middle Florida. 

Jacksonville. — Having reached this travel-cen- 
ter, the metropolis of the State, whether by rail or 
water, the tourist will pause to consider the outgo- 
ing conveyances from this point. 

Jacksonville itself is altogether familiar to the 



TEA YEL. Y7 

reading public, and on tliat account needs but brief 
mention here. It has a population of 25,000, 
and is both progressive and aggressive ; has all the 
modern appliances of comfort — fine hotels and 
many of them, gas and electric lights, telegraph 
and telephone, daily newspapers, street cars, etc. 
The settlement was originally known by its abo- 
riginal name, Wacca Pilatka, which means Cow's 
Crossing-over — Cowford — Oxford — Bosporus ; but 
it became a whiteman's town in 1816, and in 1822 
received its present name in honor of Andrew 
Jackson. It is largely a Northern city in its spirit 
and methods ; at least not essentially Southern in 
any characteristic sense. 

The city has recently become representative of 
the State of Florida, by the establishment of the 
Subtropical Exposition, a permanent institution, 
there. It is to be kept open every winter season, 
and is to exhibit the products and resources of 
Florida and the most valuable and attractive exhib- 
its that can be obtained from the Bahamas, West 
Indies, Mexico, and South America. Such an ex- 
position is new in the United States, and, when it 
is fully organized and equipped as designed, will be 
without a rival in the world. The intention is to 
increase its scope, variety, and quality every year. 



78 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 




-SCENE IN Jacksonville 



Last season's exhibits were eminently successful, 
and prove the entire feasibility of the general idea. 
By this means the visitor to Jacksonville is, in a 
way, a visitor to all parts of the State, Suitable 



TEA VEL. 79 

buildings were erected, and these must be extended 
from year to jear. The main building is three 
hundred and twentj-five feet six inches in length, 
including towers — twenty feet — at the front end. 
Its width, including the towers or minarets — twen- 
ty feet — is one hundred and fifty-two feet. En- 
gine, dynamos, and other machinery are provided. 
An annex, of sixty-four by eighty-eight feet, two 
stories high, is for an art-gallery, restaurant, and 
other suppletory compartments. 

Germane to the spirit, aim, and iinal cause of 
the Subtropical Exposition, is the Florida Immigra- 
tion Association, with headquarters at Jacksonville. 
This Association, representing all parts of the State, 
in the same way that the Exposition will ultimately 
do, was organized for the purpose of furnishing full, 
authentic, and trustworthy information to those that 
are looking toward the State with conditional view 
to making a home there. To carry out this object 
there has been established at Jacksonville a general 
agency for the purj)Ose of inviting correspondence. 
Prompt attention will be given to inquiries relating 
to any section, locality, or feature of the State. It 
is the purpose of this Association to deal only in 
facts, and to avoid exaggerated praise, which ulti- 
mately does the State more harm than unjust de- 



80 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

traction. The general agent is E. B. Yan Deman, 
Jacksonville, Florida. 

From Jacksonville. — Tliere are four general 
directions by railway from Jacksonville: one west- 
ward, reaching Pensacola; one southwestward, 
reaching Cedar Keys; one southward, reaching 
Punta Gorda on Charlotte Harbor in the Gulf of 
Mexico ; and two southward, reaching St. Augus- 
tine on the Atlantic coast and Titusville at the head 
of Indian Eiver. These routes are controlled by 
five companies. Seven years ago there were 537 
miles of railroad in the State, whereas to-day there 
are 2,180 miles. 

The five companies are — the Florida Eailway 
and JS^avigation Company, extending westward 209 
miles to the Appalachicola River and to Cedar Keys, 
and southward to the Wilhlacoochee River, Tavares, 
etc. ; the Plant System, which reaches southward to 
Tampa and Punta Gorda ; the Jacksonville, Tampa, 
and Key West Railway, which extends to Sanford, 
Tavares, Titusville, on Indian River, St. Augustine, 
and De Land ; the Florida Southern Railway, from 
Palatka to Brooksville and Pemberton Ferry; and 
the St. Augustine and Palatka Railroad, connecting 
St. Augustine with Tocoi and Palatka, Jacksonville, 
Mayport, and Pablo Beach, Pensacola with Mill- 



TEA VEL. 81 

view, Blue Springs on the St. Jolin's with Hills- 
borough on the Atlantic, and Monroe with Tarpon 
Springs. 

The steamboat line — De Barj and People's 
Line — from Jacksonville up the St. John's River to 
Sanford and Enterprise, runs passenger-boats every 
day except Saturday. 

From Jacksonville, accordingly, the traveler can 
readily reach any point of interest, and these 
abound in all directions. 

Excursions of a few hours may be made 
to— 

1. Pablo Beach, sixteen miles from Jackson- 
ville by rail. It is a sea-side resort of growing 
popularity, on the Atlantic shore, eight miles south 
of the mouth of the St. John's Kiver. The beach 
at this point is one of the finest on the Atlantic 
coast, being straight, sandy, shelving gently, smooth, 
and free from rocks and pit-holes. The bathing is 
perfectly safe. A handsome but irregular little 
town has sprung up within the last few years, hav- 
ing now a first-class hotel known as Murray Hall, 
with pavilions, restaurants, and other conveniences 
and comforts — an establishment as fine as any on 
the Atlantic coast, not surpassed at Long Branch, 
Ocean Grove, or Cape May. 
6 



82 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

2. St. Aitgiistine, the oldest city in the United 
States, is thirtj-six miles by rail from Jacksonville. 
The city— population, about 8,500 — is noted for its 
picturesque beauty ; its crumbling old city gates ; 
its odd streets, ten to twenty feet wide, without 
sidewalks ; its coquina-built houses ; its overhanging 
balconies, with a scent of days gone by over all ; its 
governor's palace ; its unique sea-wall ; the hoary 
ramparts of its year-laden San Marco ; its mediaeval- 
looking Moorish cathedral ; and the finest and most 
striking hotel in the world. 

Lady Hardy, in her admirable book of travels, 
"Down South," a few years ago, of this gaudily 
solemn old city felicitously writes : " It is like an 
old-fashioned beauty who has been lying in state 
through these long years, pranked in all her finery 
of feathers, furbelows, paint, powder, and patches, 
and now wakes up and walks and talks w^ith us in 
the quaint, stilted phraseology of old days." 

There is not a step nor a turn in this grand old 
ruin of other days that is not interesting. The very 
ocean seems to roll in an antique sort of a way ; and 
the trade-winds that sweep through the picturesque 
date-palms, magnolias, and oleanders, seem to be 
whispering in Spanish, or howling in the Cautio 
vernacular S23oken there four centuries ago. 



TRAVEL, 



83 




Street in St. Augustine, 



84 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

Tlie ancient San Marco is now Fort Marion. It 
was begun probably in 1565, and is like the pyra- 
mids of Egypt in being the work of slaves ; and it 
is a most interesting fossil of a foreign civilization, 
restored by numerous later touches. The moat is 
now dried up and overgrown ; but there are still 
the drawbridges, the massive arched entrance, the 
gray barbacan, the dark nnder-ways, the sullen 
bastions, and the crypt-like dungeons. The princely 
hotel recently built, the Ponce de Leon, has an 
annex or supplementary house, the Alcazar ; and the 
two, a magnificent unit, unite the old and the new, 
the past and the present, with wonderful splendor 
and effect. The Alcazar is unfinished. The Ponce 
de Leon revives the style of three hundred years 
ago, and enriches it with all the luxuries of to-day. 
It is built in the style of the early Spanish Renais- 
sance, with its decided flavor of the Moresque. 
The material is shell concrete, and the great build- 
ing is a stupendous monolith, and w^as molded, not 
built. The general complexion is a light mother- 
of-pearl, with bright salmon terra-cotta ornamenta- 
tion. The greatest turret height is a hundred and 
fifty feet. The building is five hundred feet long 
and covers nearly five acres. A thousand guests 
can be accommodated and seated in the dining-room, 



TRAVEL. 



85 



»*~«^ 




86 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

and this hall is one of the marvels of this immense 
establishment. The grand parlor is one hundred and 
four bj fifty-three feet, but is practically divided into 
five rooms by arches, portieres, and screens. The 
drawing-rooms on the first fioor surpass in number 
and style everything of the kind ever presented to 
the public. Besides all these there are splendid 
courts, fountains, lakes, tennis-courts, bowling-alleys, 
bars, billiard-rooms, bazaars, and arcades ; but more 
sumptuous than all are the luxurious Roman, Turk- 
ish, and Russian baths. From these access is had 
to the unrivaled plunge-baths of sea- water, covering 
nearly half an acre of varying depths from two to 
six feet. Back of these is the sea-bath proper 
which may be described as a stupendous cave of 
solid concrete, one hundred and eighty-four feet by 
eighty-four feet, and from four to thirty feet dee23, 
altogether maldng a bath without a precedent in all 
history. The electric lighting of the building is 
something plienomenal, and is in keeping with the 
splendor of the whole. The outlay for this com- 
pleted main building — the Ponce de Leon proper- 
is reported as two and a half million dollars ; and 
the Alcazar, it is predicted, will equal the other in 
both splendor and cost. During the past season, 
this immense hotel was crowded for full two 



TRA VEL. 8T 

months, Laving a thousand guests frequently ; the 
gross income being stated at over five thousand 
dollars a day. 

There are at St. Angustine yet other fine hotels 
— the new Hotel Cordova, as unique and in most 
respects as fine and as well appointed as the Hotel ; 
the San Marco, the Magnolia, the St. Augustine, 
and half a dozen minor houses. 

3. Fort George Island, at the mouth of the St. 
John's, has fine tropical scenery, charming walks 
and drives, and a good hotel. 

4. Mayport, on the south side of the mouth of 
the St. John's, is a pleasant little town of perhaps a 
hundred cottages, many of these being summer 
residences for business men in Jacksonville, The 
St. John's was called May by the French, and 
thence the name of May port. Already popular as 
an excursion resort, it is growing in popularity. 

5. Besides the above there are, within easy 
excursion distance of Jacksonville, Orange Parh, 
Mandarin, Magnolia, Green Cove SjpTings, and 
scores of others on the St. John's, all having hotels, 
and all their special charms. The St. John's region 
is too well known to need a word at this late day. 

Longer excursions from Jacksonville lie in all 
directions southward and westward ; 



88 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY, 

1. Beginning with the east coast, the tourist 
may make Indian River his objective point. This 
region enjoys a glorious climate, less variable than 
the interior and west, has fine rich semi-tropical 
scenery, and grows beyond doubt the finest oranges 
in the world. From Jacksonville the traveler may 
go by rail direct to Indian River at Titusville, 166 
miles, a town reached by telegraph and express. 
From that point he may make the entire tour of 
this famous sound, called by universal consent a 
river — known to the Spaniards as the Rio (TAis — 
from Titusville near the head, to Jupiter at the 
southern extremity, a distance of 118 miles, by 
steamer all the way. One line of steamers leave 
Titusville daily, passing JRooh Ledge, with its first- 
class hotel, fine scenery, with excellent hunting and 
fishing; Eau GaUle, with its post-office, store, and 
hotel, with several residences, and its State Agri- 
cultural College building, a monument of recon- 
struction sham and of Gleason ; down to Melbourne, 
39 miles from Titusville, where the flora begins to 
show increase of tropical elements ; and where there 
is a thriving settlement, largel}^ English, with two 
hotels, a newspaper, and no end of rod and gun 
sport. From Melbourne to Jupiter, 69 miles, 
there plies a steamer three times a week, passing 



TRA YEL. 



89 




Looking across Indian Eiver. 



^; 



90 THE FLORIDA OF TO~DAY. 

The Narrows^ with its acres and islands of oysters ; 
St. Lucie, with its long-famed hunting-grounds and 
its flocks of manatees ; Eden, with its famous pine- 
apple fields and fine fishing; on to Jupiter Inlet, 
the present end of the telegrapli line, with its 
lighthouse 170 feet high. Here the tourist is defi- 
nitely within the subtropics ; and a handsome, 
well-grown cocoanut-tree is Flora's conspicuous 
sign of a new climate. 

Only a few names of places have been men- 
tioned in this transit from Titusville to Jupiter; 
but there are more than a score of delightful places, 
with each a hotel and a post-ofiice. The flora and 
fauna gradually pass from the semi-tropical to the 
subtropical as the traveler goes southward. The 
attempering breath of the Gulf Stream becomes 
more and more operative until the traveler reaches 
Jupiter, where the Stream flrst separates from the 
land in its course northward. 

2. Or, the traveler may make Lake Worth his ob- 
jective point. He would then, as before, go from 
Jacksonville by rail to Titusville, 166 miles ; from 
Titusville to Jupiter by steamer, 118 miles ; from 
Jupiter by hack to Lake Worth, 8 miles. Once on 
the lake — which, like Indian River, was originally a 
sound — he can go to any point in boat, either row. 



TRA TEL. 91 

sail, or steam ; mostly sail. Lake Worth is 23 miles 
long, about a mile wide, and separated from the 
Atlantic by a narrow strip of land in some places 
less than a quarter of a mile wdde. An inlet near 
the northern end of the lake connects it with the 
Atlantic. The water of the lake is less salt than 
that of the ocean, by reason of numerous small 
streams and a general seepage from the fresh-water 
lakes above to the westward. The fresh-water lakes 
are about a mile west of Lake Worth ; so that the 
fisherman finds three kinds of water in less than 
three miles — the ocean, the semi salt lake, and the 
fresh lakes — with their several families of fishes. 
Deer, turkeys, ducks, and small game of various 
kinds are abundant ; as indeed they are almost the 
entire length of the Atlantic coast, but especially 
abundant in the more newly settled localities. The 
flamingo, a distinctly tropical bird, has been seen as 
far north as this lake. The cocoanut-palm grows 
and fruits here, wdiile it is a very uncertain growth 
anywhere north of this. The tropical fruits that 
can be grown north of this region, can be grown 
here without protection. 

3c Or the tourist may make Biscayne Bay, about 
sixty miles south of Lake Worth, his objective 
point. To this beautiful region there are tw^o 



92 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 



routes. One is, as above, from Jacksonville to Titus- 
ville, to Jupiter, to Lake Worth ; and there charter 
a boat and sail down the Atlantic coast, from the 
head of Lake Worth to Miami, the count j-seat of 
Dade County, 84 miles. From Miami to Key West 




A Hammock, 



TEA VEL. 93 

the distance is 130 miles. The other route to the 
Eiscajne region is, to go south down the other side 
of the State — that is, from Jacksonville to Punta 
Gorda \>j rail, to Key West by steamer or sail, to 
Miami bj sail. This Miami region has the usual 
Atlantic coast variety of soils — pine, hammock, and 
prairie — with the Everglades lying west of it. 
Here, in the heart of the subtropics, the visitor 
sees in the flora the difference between semi-tropic 
and subtropic. The guava, for exam.ple, which 
grows sometimes as far up as 30° — and land agents 
in that latitude advertise the guava as one of their 
attractions — the guava, here in Subtropical Florida, 
grows to be a tree twenty or even thirty feet high, 
with a delicious and abundant fruit, while in the 
higher latitudes it is a shrub about as tall as a man, 
with a dwarfed fruit that is hardly flt to eat at all. 
So also with the lime ; and, indeed, with all the 
rarer and more tender fruits. Fishing and hunting 
both have here the best of fields. The Gulf Stream 
brings into these w^aters the whole family of tropi- 
cal fishes, and carries the same up as far north as 
Jupiter Inlet. As to climate, this is, especially the 
northern portion of it, doubtless the most equable 
in the State ; and that, of course, means in the 
United States. The equability appears to be pretty 



94 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

uniform from Cape Florida to Jupiter Inlet — the 
region touched bj the Gulf Stream — and from Jupi- 
ter Inlet to Fernandina the equability gradually de- 
creases ; but the entire Atlantic coast has less varia- 
tion of temperature than other parts of the State. 

4. Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades are best 
reached from Jacksonville by rail to Kissimmee in 
Osceola County, and thence by boat through the 
lakes and down the Kissimmee River into Okeecho- 
bee. A second route is, by rail to Punta Gorda, 
and thence by boat up the Caloosahatchee River, 
into Okeechobee — a lake of about a thousand square 
miles in area, being about forty by twenty-five 
miles. The river and lake travel in these routes is 
not generally so delightful in itself as a vestibuled 
car; but as a picnic, pleasant and refreshing. 

5. Key West is in Monroe County, on an island 
of the name of the city, of about twelve square 
miles. It is a Spanish-looking town of nearly 
20,000 inhabitants, is lighted with gas, runs street- 
cars, and is reached by telegraph. It is a quaint 
and antiquely novel city, full of oddities and va- 
riety. Dr. Henshall says its buildings are of all 
sizes and of every conceivable style, or no style, 
of architecture ; and they are promiscuously jumbled 
together, but are joined or seamed to each other by 



TRA VEL. 95 

a wealth and profusion of tropical foliage, which 
surrounds, invests, surmounts, and overshadows 
them, softening the asperities, toning down the 
harsh outlines, and uniting the separate pieces, 
which merge their individuality in a harmonious 
toict eiisemhle. That writer sums up Key West's 
heterogeneous attractions in these words : " And so, 
mansions, huts, and hovels, balconies, canopies, and 
porches, gables, hoods, and pavilions, pillars, 
columns, and . pilasters, are mingled in endless con- 
fusion, but harmonized by arabesques of fruit and 
foliage, festoons of vines and creepers, wreaths and 
ti'aceries of climbing shrubs and trailing flowers, 
and shady bowers of palm and palmetto, almond 
and tamarind, lime and lemon, orange and banana." 
The population is mainly Cubans and Conchs, but 
there are also Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, 
Spaniards, Italians, negroes, and Americans. Eng- 
lish immigrants from the Bahamas are called 
Conchs, and settlers from the United States are 
called Americans. The island is rich in tropical 
beauties and fruits ; and the city is noted for its 
unique and picturesque features, Spanish tone, and 
cigar manufactures. In this one industry it employs 
over three thousand operatives, and handles five 
million dollars a year. It can be reached, as above 



96 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

stated, from Jacksonville by rail to Cedar Keys, 
Tampa, or Piinta Gorda ; and from either of these 
points by steamer to Key West direct. Or, on the 
other side of the peninsula, from Jacksonville by 
rail to Titusville, thence by steamer to Jupiter 
Inlet, thence down the coast by Lake Worth to 
Miami in Dade Connty, and thence one hundred 
and thirty miles, by schooner, to Key West. 

6. Cape Sable and the entire southern coast of 
Lee, Monroe, and Dade Counties are well worthy a 
visit. Here the subtropical sometimes threatens to 
become the tropical. Cocoanut groves are here and 
there, and the royal palm is to be found here, the 
only place in the whole country. The tourist, in 
a paradise of Nature, may select any one of a 
score of attractive points for his visit and tempo- 
rary sojourn. Around the coast runs a horse- 
shoe of fertile land, not many miles wide at any 
place, and backed by the Everglades, which center 
in the great Okeechobee. That part of this horse- 
shoe attempered by the Gulf Stream, the part 
toward the east on the Atlantic side, is especially 
attractive. All this region can be reached readily 
by schooner or other boat from either Key West 
or Miami ; and such boats are on hand all the time, 
especially at Key West. 



TRAVEL. 97 

Y. Tampa, some 24:0 miles from Jacksonville by 
rail direct, is a typical Florida city, of nearly 2,000 
inhabitants. It is interesting for its history, scenery, 
oranges, fish, and mounds. It is reached by tele- 
graph and express. One writer claims that Tampa 
is probably older than St. Augustine, and explains 
that, in the same year that Menendez founded the 
latter city, his deputy, De Eeinoro, was in charge 
of Tampa. Menendez sent a hundred laborers, in- 
cluding fifteen women, to Tampa to teach spinning 
to the squaws. Padre Kogel, a Catholic priest, 
was in charge of ecclesiastical interests at that 
time, and the following year Menendez made a 
Spanish peace between the Tago and the Tampa 
tribes at Tocobayo. But no records of that his- 
tory appear to have come down to this day. It 
was in Tampa Bay that General Worth persuaded 
Coacoochee to go West with his tribe, as narrated 
elsewhere in these pages. It is a few miles south 
of this city that a very large and old orange-tree 
was said to be still living that had borne over ten 
thousand oranges in one year. 

8. Tallahassee, the capital of the State, is an 
ideal Florida city, and one of the loveliest in the 
South ; and a most charming community, homo- 
geneous, hospitable, and essentially Southern. It 
7 



98 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

lias a population of nearly 3,000; lias excellent 
hotels, telegraph, express, ice-factory, and is reached 
by rail direct, 165 miles from Jacksonville. It is 
the center, too, of many attractive points to visit 
— historical homesteads, landscapes, lakes, and so 
on. Two miles from Tallahassee stands Belle vue, 
the Murat homestead, which was occupied by the 
widow of Murat, the marshal and King of Naples. 
The prince spent the last years of his life upon his 
estate in Jefferson County. He and his widow 
who survived him many years lie side by side in 
the Episcopal Cemetery at Tallahassee, with quaint 
and interesting inscriptions over the graves. 

Near by, too, is the site of the old Spanish Fort 
St. Luis, with noteworthy fragments of ponderous 
but decaying remains. 

9. Cedar Keys is by railway direct 127 miles 
from Jacksonville. It is on Way Key in the Gulf 
of Mexico, four miles from the mainland. It has 
three or four thousand inhabitants, two news- 
papers, two good hotels, a telegraph-office, and an 
express-office. It is a port of entry, and has 
shipped as much as $695,000 worth of exports a 
year, principally lumber, fish, green turtle, and 
oysters. Imports, about $5,000. A regular line of 
steamers ply between this port and the West In- 



TRA VEL. 99 

dies. The Eagle and the Faber Pencil Companies 
have here each a factory for preparing the cedar- 
wood for lead-pencils. It is a fine field for all 
kinds of fishing. 

10. Pensacola, 326 miles by rail from Jackson- 
ville, 161 miles west of Tallahassee, was fonnded by 
the Spaniards in 1696, and has had an eventful and 
checkered history. The harbor is described as one 
of the finest in the world, having an area of about 
two hundred square miles, is thirty miles long, with 
an average width of at least seven miles and a depth 
of from thirty to thirty-five feet of water. The 
entrance is half a mile wide, with twenty-four feet 
of water. There are immense quantities of lumber 
and fish shipped, also some coal from Alabama. 
There are several newspapers, churches, and hotels ; 
a fine opera-house, an express-office, a telegraph- 
ofiice, and all the conveniences of a well-appointed 
city. In that region are the Pensacola E'avy-Yard 
and the Lighthouse, Fort Barrancas, Fort Pick- 
ens, and Bayou Grande. Pensacola is a rapidly 
progressive place, and one having many attract- 
ive features for both the sight-seer and the home- 
seeker. Its climate is all that could be desired, 
having all the advantages of the Korth Florida 
tier of counties. 



100 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

11. Appalachicola has many points of attraction. 
It is about 210 miles by rail from Jacksonville, and 
has some 2,000 inhabitants. It is an important 
lumber-port, and sends out also oysters, sponges, 
and fish. It has one newspaper, good hotels, and 
an attractive enioui'age. 

12. Wakulla Springs, sixteen miles from Talla- 
hassee, is the source of the Wakulla River. It is 
nearly circular, four hundred feet wide and a hun- 
dred and six feet deep, brightly clear, green of 
many shades, and intensely interesting. The river 
that flows from it is two hundred and fifty feet 
wide at the outset, and deep enough to bear large 
vessels. This spring is in some respects more 
remarkable than the famous Silver Spring in 
Marion County. 

13. Silver Spring.— This phenomenal body of 
water is in Marion County, and is now accessible by 
rail, and enjoys the advantages of telegraph and ex- 
press. It is described as a vast circular basin, six 
hundred feet in diameter and nearly fifty feet in 
depth; is the source of a river known as Silver 
Spring Run, navigable for small steamers, and 
which flows into the Ocklawaha River, about nine 
miles distant. Notwithstanding its great depth, the 
water is so clear that the smallest object — a nickel 



TRA VEL. 101 

or a nail, for example — can be seen on the bottom. 
The place can be reached by rail direct, or by rail 
from Jacksonville to Palatka, and thence by boat 
up the Ocklawaha River to Silver Spring Run. 
This and the Wakulla Springs are beyond doubt the 
most wonderful things of their kind in the world. 

An excellent ronte for the tourist in quest of 
characteristic Semi-tropical Florida scenery is this : 
Take the day-boat up the St. John's River to San- 
ford ; thence by rail to Orlando, through the lake 
region of Orange County, via Tavares and Lees- 
burg on Lake Harris ; thence down the Ocklawaha 
River by steamer to Silver Spring ; and thence 
down the river again to Palatka, and on to Jack- 
sonville. 

14. The Ocklawaha River is comparatively little 
visited, but is richly worthy a special visit. For 
the river alone, a good plan would be to go to Lees- 
burg by rail, and thence take river-steamer to Pa- 
latka, taking in Silver Spring as part of the route. 
The Ocklawaha is perhaps the most meandering of 
all Florida's serpentine streams, and they are many. 
It flows, in its winding way, through cypress low- 
lands not elsewhere equaled in their wild and 
tangled luxuriance. The stately stems of these 
trees rise sometimes sixty or seventy feet without a 



102 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 




TEA VEL. 103 

knot or a bend, and they seem to be as much as 
four feet in diameter in some instances. The night 
trip on these boats is especially striking : tlie glar- 
ing head lights, the deep and whirling shadows, the 
confused glimpses of gloom and grandeur, the pol- 
ing the grounded boat off shore, the unique signals 
and shoutings of the crew, ths night cries of startled 
birds and beasts — all these things, varied every min- 
ute or two, make up an experience to be found no- 
where else, probably, in the world. 

15. The Suwannee River — known in classic negro 
minstrelsy as de Swannee ribher — is full of interest 
for its scenery. It is of easy access from Jackson- 
ville by rail direct. 

1 6. The Caloosahatchee Elver is one of the most 
striking in the State. The canal that connects it 
with Okeechobee Lake adds to its interest, and 
makes it the outlet of the lake to the Gulf of Mex- 
ico. It is the only river of any considerable size in 
the Subtropics. Its flora is specially rich and at- 
tractive. Tropical trees appear — and semi-tropical 
trees attain greater size than they do farther north. 
Cocoanut-palms thirty years old are to be seen here. 
For thirty-five miles from its mouth this river has 
a depth of eight feet, and a width generally of a 
mile. The banks are covered w^ith thick set tropi- 



104 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY, 

cal vegetation : oak-trees festooned with long moss 
and air-plants, palniettoes of several kinds, and 
tangled mangroves. Now, that the canal leads 
into the lake, steamers may enter the river at its 
mouth and reach Kissimmee in Osceola County, 
some 400 miles. At the mouth of the Caloosa- 
hatchee is Punta Kassa, the great transfer shipping- 
point for Key West, which lies 160 miles southward. 
Cattle for the Southern markets, mainly Key West, 
has been the great export from Punta Rassa. The 
Caloosahatchee Valley has a history too. Bloody 
work was done there in Seminole-war days. FortES 
mark centers of military operations. Fort Myers, 
with its surrounding town, stands conspicuous. 
Mounds point back to prehistoric times and to a 
history before the Seminole disgraced humanity and 
before De Leon and the other swaggering A delan- 
tados had discovered and conquested this Flowery 
Land. A distinguished veteran traveler, after hav- 
ing seen all parts of Florida, said of this beautiful 
valley that, if he w^ere a young man beginning life, 
it is here that he would settle and make his home. 
A higher compliment than this it would be difficult 
to pay any one place where attractive places abound. 
IT. The Homosassa River is midway between the 
subtropical Caloosahatchee and the minstrel-famed 



TRA VEL, 105 

Suwannee in floral and climatic features. These 
features are doubtless equally beautiful and interest- 
ing, in their three several ways ; and in this sense 
it is idle to make marked discriminations in compar- 
ing the separate attractions of a State beautiful 
from end to end. 

18. Besides and beyond all these and scores of 
places of equal interest, there are yet other scores 
each one of which is known to a select circle as the 
flnest spot in Florida — the Eden of garden-spots — 
the one Paradise of the earth — the none-such and 
only original heaven on earth — and so on. And 
most of them are very lovely and attractive places. 
The land-sharks and the paper-town men, with the 
professional boomers, have exhausted the vocabulary 
of commendation and bankrupted the dictionary in 
laudations over their moss-covered gall-berry swamps 
and desolate third-rate wet pine-barrens, until the 
conscientious chronicler of sober truth fears to tell 
what he knows to be true of scores of fine places 
all over this beautiful land with its glorious but lit- 
tle understood anomalies of climate and its rare san- 
atorial advantages. 

19. Mounds. — The excursionist with antiquarian 
proclivities will find attractive objects to visit all 
over the State, in the ancient mounds. There are 



106 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

fully two hundred of these. They are of many 
shapes, heights, and areas. The shapes are oblong, 
circular, rectangular, and irregulai'. The heights 
vary from three to thirty feet, with diameters 
from ten feet to eight hundred feet ; and the 
areas from a hundred square feet to half an acre. 
They are in all parts of the State, but are perhaps 
most abundant on the Gulf coast — Anclote, Dune- 
din, Pinellas, Tampa — but everywhere. The mate- 
rials are mostly shell, sand, and other soils ; some of 
them shells and sands alternating in layers eight to 
twelve inches thick. The uses for which these 
mounds were built are little understood, various 
theories having been put forth. Some hold that 
they were for tombs merely ; and the presence of 
human bones in many of them clearly suggests this ; 
but the absence of all traces of such bones in others 
tends to throw doubt on the tomb theory. The 
skeletons found generally lie on the right side, 
ranged radially with the head toward and near the 
center. Others hold that the mounds are palace 
sites for the residence of the sachems and saga- 
mores. Others hint at religious uses, sacrificial 
altars, and the like. Others regard the mounds as 
outlooks or sentry-towers for the tribe sentinels on 
guard, to watch against invasion in canoes. Others 



TRA VEL. 107 

yet maintain that the mounds are merely accmnula- 
tions of shells, bones, and soil, brought together by 
grand feasts or communistic boarding-houses. Some 
claim to find evidence of cannibalism and cremation 
in these bone-piles. Most writers assume that these 
mounds are the work of the aborigines found in the 
country by the Spaniards ; but the Indians are said 
to claim that the mounds were there when they 
came to the country. This, however, is worth YQrj 
little as evidence, although it is doubtless true of 
the Seminoles of to-day. The finding of a pair of 
scissors, fragments of a looking-glass, and glass 
beads, in one mound, indicates that some of the 
mounds at least have no very great antiquity. On 
the contrary, however, the presence of old trees on 
the mounds, as large as those of the adjacent forests 
—at Pinellas and Dunedin notably — point to a 
pretty early day and date. Whatever their age, 
use, or origin may be, they are objects of interest, 
and the inquiring mind anxiously awaits revelations 
and developments. There are several valuable pa- 
pers on these mounds in the Smithsonian Heports 
of some ten years ago. 



vin. 
POPULATION. 

The history of Florida, its physical features, and 
its population, are singularly alike in having ele- 
ments that are exceptional, many, and diverse. 

Peoples. — The population of to-day is made up 
of at least four peoples : the old residents, with 
whom the Southern immigrants readily coalesce ; 
the Northern and foreign immigrants ; the ne- 
groes ; and the Indians. 

Old Residents. — These, mainly British, lived in 
the northern part of the State, west of the Suwan- 
nee River. In that region, in ante-helliom days, 
were large and profitable cotton-plantations, stately 
old residences, luxurious homes ; a cultured, well- 
read, refined people, proud, self-reliant, self-sup- 
porting, courtly, exclusive in a way, but withal hos- 
pitable, liberal in spirit, religious, conservative, and 
charitable. Slavery — an institution in its main 
features distinctly patriarchal — furnished organ- 
ized labor ; and wealth, with its ease, leisure, and 



population: 109 

other advantages and amenities, marked a com- 
munity of noblemen without rank. The descen- 
dants of that day and generation are to-day the 
old residents, the old-timers, the Bourbons of the 
State. With these, and in fact of these, is a com- 
munity of earnest and energetic men, less wealthy 
and less cultured, but withal of the same spirit 
and the same civilization, and forming one with 
them in all the essentials of character. The 
cracker may be defined as the poor man that pre- 
fers ease to hardship, content with little, jealous of 
intrusion into his unkempt life, shrewd, narrow, un- 
couth, unlettered, homely, conservative. 

These, in short, are the old residents — the 
wealthy old-timers, the yeomanry, and the crack- 
ers — all in their several ways Southern ; and Bour- 
bons all. 

The immigrants from the old slave States, 
where a like spirit prevailed and similar classes 
grew up, readily and naturally blend with the 
above, and the two are essentially one. There are 
settlers from every Southern State, and these of 
all the classes and varieties. In 1880 the percent- 
age of natives born of all colors was fifty-eight ; 
and of Southern immigrants, twenty-nine. 

These Southern people of Florida look with in- 



110 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

telligent interest at the incoming tide of immigra- 
tion, and welcome it heartily. They wish to see 
the State developed in that way. What they may 
resent with some ardor, and doubtless do often re- 
sent, is the missionary spirit that seeks to change, 
asking them to discard the old and adopt the new 
— a tone of infinite superiority that some persons 
use, that offends the inherent conservatism that 
marks this people. But the straight-forward man 
that means business is always cordially welcomed. 
Northern and Foreign Immigrants. — These classes 
coujprise a large body of very miscellaneous materi- 
als. All classes of almost all countries are repre- 
sented. The IS'ortherners come from every l^orth- 
ern State and Territory except Alaska. There are 
a great many of them earnest, industrious, thrifty, 
intelligent, and progressive men. Some bring capi- 
tal and improved appliances in the industries ; some 
bring brain and brawn only; and some bring the 
worst qualities of the sharper, the adventurer, and 
the tramp. They are as varied as are the motives 
that bring them to this old-new country. Much of 
the push and energy and the resultant success of 
the State is due to the better of these workers. 
Not all the boomers, blow-hards, and paper-city 
humbugs are importations. Native talent has con- 



POPULATION. Ill 

tributed a share of these. Upon the quality and 
character of Northern immigrants, Mr. O. Mo 
Crosby, a native of New England, gives this well- 
considered testimony : " As a rule, settlers in Florida 
come from the class of well-bred Northern persons 
who have been unfortunate in the scramble for 
wealth and position, or have bodily ailments which 
a balmy climate is expected to cure. Another class, 
that can hardly be called settlers, represents those 
who own orange-grove villas or cottages, occupying 
them only during the winter, as many do their cot- 
tages for the summer at Northern sea-shore resorts. 
Persons of the first-mentioned class are often vision- 
ary, -fluent with the pen, and unpractical, while 
those who reside only a portion of the year in Flor- 
ida are hardly to be considered among the effective 
population ; and to a smaller third class of poor, 
' make-a-living toilers' belongs nmch of the credit 
of Florida's practical advancement. These are they 
who have brought Northern energy and common 
sense together, and what they have achieved is 
worth all that has been written by those who have 
theories yet untried, but who are anxious to get 
them into print. The Northern settler at first is in- 
variably hampered by his conceit. He ' will show 
the slow-going natives a thing or two,' and it is 



112 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

usually after he has sunk most of his available capi- 
tal that he is ready to admit that these natives can 
teach him. Usually a compromise in methods is 
the result. It is a trifle humiliating to the average 
Yankee settler to And that the largest and most 
productive orange-groves are often owned and culti- 
vated by native Floridians or Southerners, whom in 
liis superior wisdom he had considered as lacking 
in successful methods." 

If the miscellaneousness of the American con- 
tingent is striking, that of the foreign settlers is ne- 
cessarily more so. They come from British Ameri- 
ca, Mexico, Cuba, Central America, and South 
America. The Europeans come from England, Ire- 
land, Scotland, Wales, Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, 
Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, 
Luxemburg, Norway, Poland, Russia, SjDain, Swe- 
den, and Switzerland. There are Asiatics from 
China and India, Africans, Australians, Sandwich- 
Islanders, and Atlantic-islanders. 

In such a variety of nationalities there is, of 
course, a vast diversity of characters, talents, mo- 
tives, and results. While, in such an agglomera- 
tion, there must be mach riff-raff, there are at the 
same time experts in some of the best and most 
promising industries — as the wine - growers of 



POPULATION. 113 

France, tlie silk-growers of Italy, the tobacco- 
growers of Cuba, and the tropical -fruit growers of 
South America. 

Negroes. — The negroes of Florida are mainly 
resident freedmen, with some politicianal additions 
made during the period of muddle known as recon- 
struction. The former make up the great collective 
body of this people, and they preserve the tradi- 
tions and the genius of their race with excellent 
fidelity. The fortunes of war gave them freedom, 
and citizenship has followed through means simi- 
larly summary. A recent Northern writer, with 
striking frankness, says that the newly enfranchised 
slaves " lost no time in deserting the great army of 
producers to engage almost en masse in the more 
congenial vocation of politics ; the production of 
the staple crops ceased almost entirely ; the planta- 
tion was deserted for the town and the cross-road 
rendezvous." During the period between 1865 and 
1876 these slaves worked faithfully in the planta- 
tion of politics; but at the latter date a second 
emancipation changed their status slightly, and 
since then they have been working somewhat more 
and voting rather less, and are doing vastly better 
in all important respects. So also is Florida pros- 
pering. The future fortunes of the negroes are 
8 



114 THE FLO BID A OF TO-JDAY. 

largely in the hands of the controlhng race, and 
they themselves will probahly have little to do in 
shaping it ; and doubtless the less they have to do 
with it the better. 

A Northern writer elsewhere quoted — Mr. O. M. 
Crosby, author of " Florida Facts " — makes the fol- 
lowing pointed remarks upon this matter ; " Outside 
of the old slave-owning settlements negroes are 
scarce, they preferring as a rule to work for their 
old masters rather than to be driven by the impetu- 
ous ]^ortherner, who they suspect wishes to get 
more work out of them than is agreeable to their 
indolent nature. While the African is as necessary 
in clearing away forests and in hard manual labor as 
the Irishman is at the North, now that he is free he 
has no idea of working more than is barely necessary 
to keep him in pork and grits. His rations cost at 
most but a dollar a week, and he sees no reason in 
working six days out of seven, when three or four 
provide for his own wants and those of his family. 
There are few colored men that will agree to work 
faithfully by the month, or, if they do so agree, they 
often excuse themselves when most needed with an 
' I reckon I won't work to-day, boss,' that is aggra- 
vating to the new settler, anxious to get his grove 
planted at the right time, and who is nsed to having 



POPULATION-. 115 

hands whom, after hiring, he can command. Con- 
tractors needing one hundred men nsually employ 
one third more, to keep the ranks Ml, and then are 
often left with but a few, especially after pay-day, 
or until the men begin to get hungry again. Few 
darkies are providential enough to lay up enough to 
last them from week to week, and, as their sense of 
honor is low, they can not be ' trusted ' at the stores. 
Employers are usually ' dunned ' every day for 
money, for rations, or ' baccy.' Withal they are so 
thoroughly good-natured, with a don't-care-for-to- 
morrow air, that the driving employer soon finds it 
necessary to be more easy with them, realizing that 
crowding will cause them to leave him unceremoni- 
ously." The same writer further says : " The 
negro problem will assume a new form, to even the 
most rabid abolitionist, after a residence in Florida. 
If he employs colored help, paying promptly, feed- 
ing well, and treating humanely, he will naturally 
expect the return and obedience he would from 
laborers at the N^orth, and will be surprised to learn 
how utterly shiftless and devoid of all honor the 
average Southern darky is, and will soon find out 
that the latter would much rather work for his old 
owner than for him." 

The amount of property acquired by the negroes 



116 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

is encouraging ; and it is a very suggestive fact in 
this connection tliat their greatest progress — and 
ahnost their only material progress — ^has been made 
since 1876. 

As to the negro's freedom in voting there could 
hardly be a better witness than Mr. Hamilton Jay. 
This writer of himself says : " I am a Northern man 
by birth and education, and came to Florida in 
1871. For nearly ten years I was prominently 
identified with the Eepublican party in Florida, 
both in a journalistic and official capacity. In the 
national election of 1876 I had charge of the 
IJDited States soldiers at the polls in Jefferson 
County, and during the work of the returning- 
board at Tallahassee I was editor of the ' Daily 
Union,' a stalwart Eepublican newspaper, then 
published at Jacksonville." Of negro voting Mr. 
Jay says; "I state most solemnly and truthfully 
that I have never seen a negro intimidated by a 
Southern white man in his exercise of the elect- 
ive franchise. On the contrary, I have on more 
than one occasion seen Southern white Demo- 
crats go with negroes who hesitated to approach 
the polls, and stand by their side while they voted 
the ticket they desired to vote, the Eepublican 
ticket." 



POPULATION 117 

Indians.— The Indians of Florida are called 
Seminoles. The original Indians— after the ab- 
originals had risen, fiourished, built their mounds, 
and disappeared— appear to have been Miccosu- 
kies. With these subsequently mingled many fugi- 
tives from the Carolina and Georgia Mnscogees or 
Creeks under Secoffee, a noted chief who invaded 
Florida and settled there in 1750. These fugitives, 
it is stated, were first designated as Seminoles— 
meaning refugees, runaways, vagabonds — and finally 
the remnants of many tribes that remained in that 
region first endured and then embraced the name. 
Whatever tbe etymological facts in the case may be, 
the prowlers, numbering nearly three hundred, now 
living in Subtropical Florida and gadding about the 
country, look the name perfectly. In addition to 
tbe general mixture of Indian bloods, hundreds of 
runaway negroes have been absorbed ; and the half- 
breeds on the white side bave a pretty low grade of 
pale-face blood to boast of. 

The latest Government reports state the number 
of Seminoles as about two hundred and sixty-nine, 
one third of whom are of fighting age, and living 
in the counties of Lee, Monroe, Dade, and Bre- 
vard, principally in the Everglades. But the Indian 
evades the census-taker as he would the plague; 



118 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

and will lie without stint, with no motive higher 
than to circumvent the white man. 

They live in shifting settlements, called villages, 
each one under a chief. The old-time wigwam has 
given place to the modern house, cottage, or shanty, 
built of lumber, rough but hewn or riven. Piazzas 
and windows begin to appear. But the dwellings 
of the many are shanties. These consist of upright 
posts driven into the ground ; the roof, a thatch of 
palmetto-leaves tied to cross-poles ; the floor, on 
shorter posts about a yard from the ground; the 
sides of the one-roomed houses being open or but 
slightly protected with palmetto-leaveSo In the day- 
time when at home they sit on the floors, and sleep 
on them at night, the beds so called being rolled up 
during the day. Their lighter social or domestic 
gatherings around the evening yard fires are — to 
put it mildly — informal, and the individuals are 
diversely occupied. Mothers fondle their papooses, 
and shell beans, pound hominy in mortars, or pull 
buckskin, or do some other hand work. The chil- 
dren and dogs roll and tumble about together in 
play. The men repair their arms and other imple- 
ments or accoutrements, mold bullets, look on, talk, 
and smoke. The sages — old men always lapse into 
sages, it seems — stare into the flre and grunt mono- 



POPULATION'. 119 

syllabic responses to those around them. The 
family pot for next day's feed is boiling over the 
fire, while some matron gives it her attention from 
time to time, adding water, salt, and onions, as her 
judgment dictates, and a precious mess of nau- 
seous stuff it generally is ! In the ashes potatoes 
are roasted. They crawl away to bed, one after 
another, as the spirit moves. 

Young men and spinsters are not expected, nor 
indeed allowed, to talk to white visitors, while the 
old men are near. The young must affect not to 
understand English on such occasions. 

Near each village there is always a public 
cam/pus^ with a tall pole in the center. Here their 
festivities all are held. These are their stated 
dances, the most important of which is the green- 
corn dance — a sort of annual worship of Ceres. 
The celebration consists of dancing around the pole, 
eating green corn, and drinking whisky {wy-o-mee)^ 
which of late years is the most important feature. 

They grow corn, rice, potatoes, sugarcane, 
melons, and some fruit, and keep hogs, cattle, a few 
ponies, and poultry. 

The men usually wear a calico shirt, middle 
wrap, a shawl, and a turban, and on some special 
occasions, as when visiting the white settlements or 



120 THE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 

hunting in the scrub, pantaloons or leggings, and 
moccasins. The turban is a conspicuous and pict- 
uresque affair, and quite Oriental in its effects. It 
is sometimes nearly two feet in diameter, and four 
to six inches high. It is made of shawls or wraps 
of some kind, the outside layer being often a showy 
bandanna. It is a heavy affair, and seems to require 
a conscious effort to keep it in balance. The chiefs 
distinguish themselves, especially on occasions of 
state, with something — no matter what — showy, 
expensive, and oidrS / often a highly fancy hunt- 
ing-shirt with broad collar and fringes all over, 
and tawdry stripes and ribbons. The children, 
popularly laiown as pickaninnies, not papooses, 
about their homes generally wear nothing ; but 
when traveling they often wear loose wrappers, 
especially in winter, and during youth wear but 
scant apparel. 

The turban is for a toga virilis of the males, and 
is assumed between eighteen and twenty. Every 
brave has a gun, generally a rifle, the Winchester 
being most common. The traditional bow and 
arrows are now the toys of children. 

The children are cheerful, active, and full of 
play, eager to learn to shoot, to sail boats, to read, 
to write, and other like things of the outside world ; 



POPULATION. 121 

but the older folks are glum, seK-satisfied, secretive, 
conceited, and proud of their ignorance. 

The wonaen wear calico skirts and jacket, or a 
plain frock, and beads, and thej generally go bare- 
foot. Their beads are absurdly piled up ; sometimes 
as many as iif ty strings of cheap, colored glass beads 
are piled up around the neck and shoulders. The 
old women tie up the hair in a knot on the back of 
the head, while the spinsters wear it loose, banged, 
and, on rare occasions, braided. The old squaws 
are hideously hard-featured, and formerly they did 
pretty much all the house and kitchen drudgery ; 
but of late years the men, boys, and girls join in the 
general work. 

The following account of a very recent visit to a 
Seminole camp on the Miami River in Dade County 
gives a fair idea of subtropical savage life in 1888 : 
" At length we came to a trail or path which led to 
the Indian camp. This camp is composed of several 
huts, having no siding, only floors of rough-hewn 
boards, black with dirt, raised about two feet above 
the ground. Roofs of palmetto-leaves are all the 
protection they have against the inclemency of the 
weather. They had no furniture of any kind, no 
table, chairs, not even stools or benches to sit on. 
A few pots and pans stood around, which were used 



122 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY, 

for cooking in, but we did not see any dishes; all 
must eat out of one pan, using their fingers. 

^' Everything was in confusion — clothing, bed- 
ding, beads, vegetables, and cooking-utensils. They 
have strings of small turtle-shells, with some kind of 
seeds, which they fasten around their knees when 
they dance, the seeds rattling like shot in a glass 
bottle with every movement of the wearer. Dried 
skins of bears, wild cats, deer, and other animals 
were scattered promiscuously about. Lean-looking 
black pigs roamed at large about the premises. An 
old hen sat complacently on her nest made of a new 
calico dress skirt which lay on the floor. Here and 
there were large pans filled with potatoes, vege- 
tables, and venison. Biscuit weighing about a 
pound apiece, and fish cooked whole with head and 
scales on, stood ready for any one whose appetite 
could be tempted by such dainties. 

" We saw none of the Indian men in camp ; 
they must all have been in the field at work. But 
squatted under one of the roofs was a pickaninny, 
a boy about foui' or five years old, and three pretty 
young squaws, daughters of Billy Harney. The 
younger one of the squaws was really handsome, 
with large, beautiful dark eyes, mild and fawn-like 
in expression, her dark cheeks glowing with health, 



POPULATION. 123 

8S slie moved about in a graceful, gliding manner 
peculiar to the race. All wore calico skirts fanci- 
fully trimmed ; and small shoulder-capes, which 
barely reached the skirt-band, answered for waists. 
Several pieces of bright tin, about the size and 
shape of a silver dollar, were fastened at the bosom. 
Some eighty or a hundred strings of various col- 
ored beads were wound around their necks nntil 
they reached nearly to their chins. 

" One of the squaws was sewing, using a thim- 
ble, and the sewing would do credit to many a 
white woman. They talked in their own dialect 
among themselves, in a low, almost inaudible tone. 
We could not make out anything they said, 
although I think they understood us pretty well, 
as they seemed pleased if complimented." 

The Indians frequently visit the white settle- 
ments, to sell hides, venison, turkey, potatoes, etc., 
and to buy guns, ammunition, sugar, coffee, cloths, 
and whisky — always whisky. Their words are few 
— for the whites — in-cah, good ; ho-le-iva~gus, bad ; 
wy-o-mee, whisky — they need few others. Letters 
they call talk-paper. 

These Indians often live to a great age. Several 
are believed to be past a hundred. 

The Seminoles of the present generation are bet- 



124: THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

ter than those of the last were, albeit the progress 
is passing slow. Those old fellows that toma- 
hawked children and cut women's throats while 
Jackson was Governor in 1821 are in no mood to 
forgive anybody to-day. It is not the Indian's 
revelation to have merely an eye for an eye and a 
tooth for a tooth ; but his ethics demands every- 
thing for anything, and his worship is carnage and 
his sacramental wine is blood. 

Those old fellows believe that no civilization has 
ever equaled theirs ; and they have but a contempt- 
uous idea of the Big Chief at Washington, albeit 
they have learned — ^from pedagogues like "Worth — 
to have a certain respect for the United States sol- 
diers that come near them. These sages refuse fre- 
quently even to confer with the United States 
agents sent to them of late years. Old Chipco 
said to the agent a few years ago that they did 
not want to hear any "Washington talk." Spe- 
cial Agent Wilson in 1887 was sent to buy lands for 
as many of them as would settle and remain set- 
tled on the lands. He had an interview with Old 
Alleck, as he is called, the centenarian chieftain 
of a cluster of shanties and may be a score of so- 
called braves, and in his official report gives this 
account of it : 



POPULATIOK 125 

" The old fellow is bent and shriveled with age 
(he told me he was one hundred years old, and I 
incline to beheve he is older), his sight and hearing 
are both badly impaired, and as he sat conversing 
with two other old ' veterans ' not many years his 
junior, I then beheld what to my mind was a group 
of typical aborigines. 

"I made known my business to Old AUeck 
through my interpreter, who listened very courte- 
ously to all I had to say, and then gave vent to the 
most derisive and sarcastic laugh I ever heard, after 
which he proceeded with a long harangue, not a 
word of which was intelligible to me because of his 
hoarse guttural style of utterance, but I was told by 
my Indian friend that he would not accede to any 
of my propositions." 

A fairly illustrative picture of Seminole charac- 
ter, spirit, and civilization of the past generation, at 
its best, is the row raised by the sainted Osceola, 
when the agent at one of our stations issued an 
order forbidding the sale of ammunition and arms 
to the Indians. This order was issued after re- 
peated proofs that the Indians were arming them- 
selves for further treachery and greater butchery. 
Osceola, the gentle martyr and ideal Stoic of the 
woods, was denied the privilege of purchasing pow- 



126 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 

der to shoot more women and cliildren with ; and, 
bursting wdth rage, gave vent to his noble feelings 
in these words : " Am I a negro — a slave ? Mj 
skin is dark, but not black ! I am an Indian — a 
Seminole ! The white man shall not make me 
black ! I will make the white man red with blood, 
and then blacken him in the sun and rain, where 
the wolf shall smell of his bones and the buzzard 
live "upon his flesh ! " 



IX. 

EDUCATIOK 

Theee is little to note in regard to education in 
Florida, except that it lias fully kept pace with the 
general progress. 

The common-school system is popular, well 
supported, efficient, and eminently successful — in 
very few of the States, indeed, more so. Beyond 
this, the details of its operation will not interest the 
general reader. Superintendent A. J. Kussell, to 
whose ability this success is largely due, gives the 
following in his latest report : 

The whole number of schools reported for the 
scholastic year 1886-87, ending September 20, 
1887, is 2,103. The total enrollment for the year 
1887 is 82,453 pupils. The total average daily 
attendance is 51,059 pupils, which is 67 per cent of 
the total enrollment. The increase in daily attend- 
ance over preceding year is 6,246. The total num- 
ber of teachers employed is 2,318 — 1,739 white and 
579 colored. Total funds expended for school pur- 



128 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

poses, raised by State and counties, $449,299.15 — 
a jper capita of the total enrollment of $5.45 a 
year, and of the average daily attendance, $8.80 
a year. 

In addition to the common schools there are 
several important institutions for higher and special 
education, such as — 

The Florida Agricultural College at Lake City, 
endowed by the United States, where students of 
the State may receive a foil collegiate course and a 
thorough practical course in agriculture free of all 
expense, except for board at a very moderate charge. 
Students not desiring to take the literary course 
may take a special course of six or twelve months at 
option in agriculture. 

The East Florida Seminary, at Gainesville, a 
large military and normal institution, with a fine 
corps of teachers. 

The West Florida Seminary (Seminary West of 
the Suwannee River), at Tallahassee, similar to the 
preceding; the two seminaries having a joint en- 
dowment fund of $92,300, affording a revenue of 
$5,695, which is divided equally between them. 

The Florida University, at Tallahassee. 

An Institute for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind, 
recently established by the State at St. Augustine. 



EDUCATION. 129 

Both races are admitted, the buildings for thern 
being separate. 

EolUns College, founded in 1885, at Winter 
Park, Orange County, with an endowment amount- 
ing to $114,000. 

De Land University, at De Land, Volusia 
County, chartered in 1887, had been for some years 
growing up from the De Land Academy. It has 
four departments in successful operation. 

A State E'ormal College for each race was or- 
ganized and opened during the past year. The one 
for whites is at De Funiak Springs, Walton County ; 
and the one for colored students is at Tallahassee. 
Both are in operation to-( 
9 



X. 

PKODUCTIONS. 

The productive industries of Florida are numer- 
ous, varied, important, and to a considerable extent 
peculiar. The variety of products is greater than 
in any other State. 

Prominent among these, and altogether the best 
advertised of all, is the growing of citrus fruits. 
Of these fruits there are six well-known kinds — 
the orange, lemon, lime, shaddock, grape-fruit, and 
citron. The statement has been made that there 
are two hundred and fifty varieties in all in the 
State ; and nursery-men advertise about half that 
number. 

Oranges. — The orange is by far the most im- 
portant of these citrus fruits, and its culture has 
been longest before the public. It is stated that 
there are $10,000,000 invested in orange-groves, 
with room for five times that amount. The crop 
just gathered, according to actual returns of the 
transportation companies, aggregates 1,126,799 



PRODUCTIONS. 131 

crates. Tlie average price net lias been about $1.62 
a crate ; the net valne of the crop being, accord- 
ingly, $1,825,414 Upon this as a basis, it is safe 
to reckon the aggregate crop at 1,250,000 crates, 




Orange (^Citrus aurantium). 



and the net valne at more than $2,000,000. The 
coming crop is estimated by Captain A. M. Ives, of 
the Florida Fruit Exchange, at from 2,000,000 to 
2,500,000 crates, and no better authority than he 
can be cited. 

The oldest and most widely known grove in the 
State, probably, is the Dummitt grove, on Indian 
Kiver, near Canaveral. It was started about 1850, 
and has now some 3,000 trees. ]N"ear by, on the 



132 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



west shore, is the Spratt grove. The most produc- 
tive and the largest bearing grove in the State, and 
probably in the world, is that of J. A. Harris, on 
Orange Lake, in Marion County, covering 185 acres. 




Orange-Trees. 



and having 30,000 bearing trees. The last crop 
from this grove was 32,000 crates, which sold for 
$65,000. It was stated that the crop of 1885-'86 



PRODUCTION'S. 133 

brought $90,000. Contiguous to this grove lie 
several important ones, aggregating about 500 acres, 
all being in or near bearing. One of these, owned 
bj the Dunn Brothers, is valued at over $100,000. 
There are also the Matthews grove, the John 
Church and Company, and several others. This is 
doubtless one of the most important orange centers 
in the State. The younger grove of J. Hart l^orris, 
at Spring Garden, Yolusia County, 200 acres, in 
partial bearing, is also an important one. So is the 
Bishop grove. The Spear grove, near Sanford, 
Orange County, has only four and a half acres, but 
the trees are large — twenty-five or thirty years old — 
and the yield is from 10,000 to 15,000 crates a year. 
J^ear Sanford also is the Belair grove ; and farther 
down the St. John's Kiver is the Hart grove, which 
yields about $10,000 a year. All through these 
central counties, from the Atlantic to the Gulf, 
til ere are hundreds of valuable and rapidly advanc- 
ing groves, altogether too numerous even to mention 
by name, much less in detail. 

The claims, or pretensions, as the case may be, 
of different regions are very conflicting and confus- 
ing; but to one not interested in any way in the 
orange business it seems to be by general agreement 
settled — outside the Belt — that the Indian River 



134 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

region lias some advantages over all others, and can 
grow and has grown the finest oranges in Florida, 
and "in Florida" means in the world. The St. 
John's region, however, and the interior counties ly- 
ing west of that, are unquestionably doing a heavier 
business than the paradise along the ocean-coast is 
doing thus far. Bnt all over the Orange Belt, and 
north of it in IN'orthern Florida, and south of it in 
Subtropical Florida, the orange grows and thrives 
with more or less success, though its habitat is in 
Semi-tropical Florida — the Orange Belt proper. In 
I^orthern Florida, except along the water-protected 
Gulf coast— and occasionally there — there is con- 
siderable risk of losing crops by frost ; and in the 
subtropics, lying south of the Orange Belt, the 
orange is crowded out by more profitable fruits of 
that climate, and it is possible that the bracing of 
winter is needed to bring the orange to its best. 

As many as ten thousand oranges, it seemo, have 
been gathered from a single tree in one year in sev- 
eral instances; one near Waldo in Alachua Coun- 
ty, and one near Tampa in Hillsborough County. 
No tree, it is stated, dates back beyond the freeze of 
1835. The backset given to this industry by the 
cold snap of 1886 operated but shghtly and only for 
a time to arrest the enthusiasm in the business. 



PRODUCTIONS. 135 

The cause for depression is already gone, as the 
large crop jnst gathered proves ; that being the 
largest ever grown in the State. 

As to California's claim to be the great orange- 
growing State, a few facts will show the emptiness 
of such claim. Professor Budd, of the Iowa Agri- 
cultural College, has recently examined that Pacific 
region ; and he reports that in the entire State of 
California the area adapted to the production of 
oranges does not exceed 85,000 acres. Dr. Ken- 
worthj has recently published the statement that 
the one county of Hillsborough in Florida contains 
fully 40,000 acres of land better adapted to the cult- 
ure of oranges, lemons, limes, grape-fruit, shad- 
docks, and citrons, than the California lands above 
referred to ; and that in the same county are ten 
times as many as 35,000 acres on which oranges 
may be successfully grown, without having to re- 
sort to the expense of some $15 an acre for irri- 
gation. ]N"ow there are fully fifteen counties of 
Florida within the Orange Belt. If Hillsborough 
County has ten times as much orange-land as all 
California, and there are fourteen other counties 
in Florida's Orange Belt, the rivalry between Cali- 
fornia and Florida can not be very damaging to 
Florida. It is elsewhere shown that the climate 



136 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

of Florida suits the orange better than does that 
of California. 

The varieties of the orange best suited to the 
various soils, climates, and cultures of Florida may 
be learned from the books on " Orange-Culture," 
mention of which is made elsewhere in these pages. 
Yery positive preferences will be found there. 
The mandarin varieties deserve careful attention 
and trial, and some have been already approved by 
growers. The Tcumquat, also, or Citrus Japonica^ 
seems to have qualities that commend it to the at- 
tention of the culturists of the Orange Belt. 

Lemons. — The lemon stands in popular thought 
next to the orange, although not a great deal, com- 
paratively, has been done in that direction in this 
country — this mainly, perhaps, on account of the 
inferiority of the earlier varieties planted. More 
recently the old Spanish rough-coated lemon has 
been giving place to better fruit. Five finer va- 
rieties have been tried, some with fair but none 
thus far with phenomenal success ; but time prom- 
ises the very best results. The Yilla Franca, Bel- 
air Premium, and Genoa are the favorites of the 
imported kinds ; and all are vastly superior to the 
old monstrosity of other days. The Sicily and the 
Eureka are earnestly advocated by some. But 



PRODUCTIONS. 137 

there are doubtless a score of varieties that will 
be found to do well. 

The lemon is a shade less hardy than the or- 
ange, and it can not be grown as far north as can 




Lemon. 

that sister fruit. The southern half of the semi- 
tropics and all the region southward of it are well 
suited to the lemon ; and, within that safe and lim- 
ited area, it is a question if it be not the more 
profitable of the two in the future. The Yilla 
Eranca was but shghtlj if at all Imrt near Sanford 
by the cold snap of 1886 ; while north of that, in 
all unprotected localities, there was more or less 



138 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

damage done to the lemon-trees, tliongh in gen- 
eral it was temporary. 

Limes. — The lime seems destined to take the 
place of the lemon in many nses, but as yet it is 
not half so well known. The fact that its area of 
production is far more limited than that of the 
orange, and even of the lemon, will give it some 
advantage when it reaches its legitimate place in 
the fruit-market. It is the tenderest of the citrus 




Lime-Tree. 



family, and is confined pretty closely within the sub- 
tropical region, although several fine and success- 
ful trees have been grown as far north as 28° on the 



PRODUCTION'S. 139 

Gulf and 29° on tlie Atlantic side. The lime has 
not hitherto been grown for the obvious reason that 
its habitat has not been settled long enough jet. 
Anywhere north of the line just indicated, 28°-29°, 
the lime is very liable to damage from cold nearly 
every winter, the testimony of land agents to the 
contrary notwithstanding. The counties of Marion, 
Dade, and Lee embrace nearly all the territory 
available for safe lime-culture. The growing of 
this fruit has been thus far mainly experimental, 
very few acres having been planted anywhere and 
but little marketing done ; but the success of a few 
individuals, in the region where the lime can grow, 
has been phenomenal, and prices realized corre- 
spondingly great. On Lake Worth, in Dade 
County, Captain E. I^. Dimick has a lime-tree of 
the fruitage of which and the sales he has kept a 
careful and separate record and reckoning. The 
tree, of the variety known as the Mexican or Flor- 
ida lime, was planted in 1877 ; and at the age of 
nine years — in 1886-87 — it bore more than 12,500 
limes. These were sold in Jacksonville and yielded 
the handsome sum of $37.72 net. The tree is, of 
course, an exceptionally fine and favored one ; but 
the results are important as indicating possibilities. 
The frait matures nearly every month in the year. 



140 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

The trees may be planted a hundred to the acre, 
or even closer, as they are much smaller, even in 
the subtropics, than the orange or the lemon. The 
fruit begins to appear in the third or fourth year 
from the seed. The Tahiti is the most tropical of 
the varieties now grown in Florida; but the Im- 
perial and the Persian are preferred by some. Still, 
the common or Mexican lime, brought into the 
State by the Spaniards from Mexico, is for general 
economic purposes perhaps equal to the best. This 
variety grows well and is exceptionally free from 
the diseases so common in the citrus family. A 
sub-variety of this common kind, left on the east 
coast by the missionaries of the older days of the 
Spanish domination, known there to-day as the 
Mission lime, is the very best of the older kinds. 
The fruit of this is larger and of smoother peel. 
Profitable crops have been gathered in Dade County 
from trees five years old. 

" Other Citrus Fruits. — The other members of 
the citrus family are but little grown for sale ; the 
grape-fruit being most often seen in our American 
markets, where, however, it is growing in favor. 
The shaddock also is rarely seen. This fruit has 
been known to measure twelve inches in diameter. 
The citron is still scarcer in the cities, except in the 



PRODUCTIONS. ^ 141 

form of preserves. It grows on a tree the most 
irregular and shrubby of all the citrus tribe. All 
these grow well, along with the orange, in the semi- 
tropics, all. being hardier than the lime and the 
lemon. 

Valuable information and guidance, both prac- 
tical and theoretical, on orange-growing especially 
and citrus-growing generally, are to be found in the 
books devoted to those subjects. All the essential 
points on these fruits — soils suitable for them, best 
varieties to cultivate, times to plant, diseases, draw- 
backs, fertilizers, and all that pertains to this fasci- 
nating and sometimes disappointing pursuit — may 
be found in the books : Moore's '* Orange Culture 
in Florida," Mannville's " Orange Culture," Davis's 
" Orange Culture," Spaulding's " Orange Culture 
Id California," Garey's '' Orange Culture in Califor- 
nia," Galesio " On the Orange," and Helen Har- 
court's " Florida Fruits and how to raise them." 
These, and several others that the reader will read- 
ily find upon inquiry, w^ill give all the help that 
can come from books ; and, beyond that, practical 
experience is all-important. 

Cocoanuts. — The cocoanut has been for several 
years now attracting attention in the subtropics. 
There are few chroniclers that have the hardihood 



142 



tllE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 



to assert that it can live and fruit well anywliere 
north of that favored region. The only serious at- 
tempts to grow cocoanuts have been in Monroe, 
Dade, and Lee Counties ; and in the northern part 
of this section — as at Jupiter Inlet, on the Atlantic 




COCOANUT GeoVE. 

coast, and south of the hue 27° — the fruiting is not 
very satisfactory. On the Florida Keys in Monroe, 
on the coast of Dade, are the extensive groves of 
John Lowe, 1,500 trees, of which 600 are in bear- 
ing ; of E. O. Locke, 25,000 trees, of which 100 are 



PRODUCTIONS, 143 

in bearing ; of Williams & WaiTen, 25,000 trees ; 
and numerous others of from 1,400 up to 18,000, 
more or less in bearing. On tlie west coast of Mon- 
roe there are James A. Waddell's grove of 30,000 
trees, and two or three other extensive groves. Set- 
tlers in the Caloosahatchee River region, in Lee 
County, are planting extensively ; and gratifying 
results are confidently expected in the near future. 
James Evans, at Fort Myers, in that valley, has 
a number of sporadic now finely bearing trees 
about thirty years old. In Dade County there are 
at Lake Worth about 25,000 trees, the oldest plant- 
ed in 1878, of which perhaps 2,500 are in bearing ; 
and, south of that, Field & Osborne have planted, 
within the past four years, about 330,000 nuts. 

Thus the aggregate number of trees in the three 
subtropical counties is something over half a million 
planted and probably living, of which may be 5,000 
have reached the nut-bearing age or stage. The in- 
dustry is a new one. The most productive trees are 
reported to bear 365 nuts a year; but 100 nuts a 
year to the tree is considered a good average for 
bearing trees, although 200 to the tree, as single 
trees, is not infrequent One writer estimates that 
$1,500 a year to the acre can be realized from co- 
coanuts. 



144: THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

There are two varieties of the cocoanut — the 
green and the yellow — found in Florida. They 
grow only near salt water and in the salt atmos- 
phere. Limestone soils, coral sands, and mold 
hammocks, are all said to be favorable for these 
trees. They bear nuts at from seven to ten years 
under favorable circumstances. The oldest trees in 
the State were planted at Key West in Marion 
County, at Miami in Dade, and at Fort Myers in 
Lee, in or near 1845. There are trees in Key West 
nearly eighty feet high. Yery little cultivation is 
thought to be required. A hundred trees to the 
acre is the usual spacing. If it is true, as is confi- 
dently claimed, that the cocoanut-palm (the Cocos 
nuG^fera of the botanists) will not endure frost, 
then its growing may be safely assumed as marking 
the frostless region ; and, that point conceded, men 
need not bother, wrangle, and fleer about the frost- 
line, so called. 

Pineapples. — This fruit will bear a little, but 
very little, more cold than the cocoanut ; but, by 
means of special protection, pineapples may be 
grown, with moderate risk, up to the middle of the 
semi-tropics, the quality of the fruit being poorer 
the farther north. They have now been cultivated 
many years with fair success, though on a very lim- 



PRODUCTIONS. 145 

ited scale, in the subtropics, especially upon tlie 
keys in Monroe Conntj. The area is enlarging, and 
now embraces all Monroe, Dade, and Lee Connties. 
It is estimated that fully 500 acres are in cnltivation 
at this time. The hardier and less valnable varieties 
have been grown in parts of IN^orthern Florida, but, 
as a crop, they can not be grown there. In Semi- 
tropical Florida, esjDecially in the southern half of 
it, south of 28° or 2S° 30', they can be grown with 
only an occasional killing by frost ; but in the north- 
ern half of the Orange Belt protection of some sort 
is indispensable and the crop exceedingly uncertain, 
vaporing assertions to the contraiy notwithstanding. 
They are doubtless, in their legitimate area, and un- 
der suitable conditions, one of the most paying crops 
in the State. 

There are many varieties ; but the one most 
commonly grown is called the Red Sx3anish, and 
this with proper cultivation in the extreme south 
is a most excellent fruit, and weighs ordinarily 
from two to four pounds, frequently going higher. 
Reasoner Brothers, in their " Catalogue," state that 
the following are synonyms of Red Spanish : Straw- 
berry, Scarlet, Cuban, Havana, Key Largo, and 
Black Spanish. Pineapple-growers, however, are 
beginning to experiment with finer kinds, such as 
10 



146 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

the Pernambucos, Porto Picos, Cuban Garden Pines, 
Egyptian Queens, and others of the larger and finer 
varieties. 

The Red Spanish may be planted from 10,000 
to 12,000 plants to the acre. Growers expect to 
gather about seventy-five per cent of the plantings. 
Many gather less, and some get more. It depends 
largely upon the cultivation. 

Sandy soil suits all kinds of pines best; and 
finer, tenderer, and more richly flavored fruit is 
grown on sand or sandy loam than anywhere else. 
They should be planted high and dry, and watered 
freely duriug drought. Suckers yield fruit fre- 
quently in one year, but the ordinary slip needs 
two years to fruit after setting out. With reason- 
able attention and skill an acre may yield $1,000 a 
year net; and with the finer varieties, when these 
liave been successfully introduced, much larger 
profits may be reasonably expected. Florida can 
grow finer fruit and of better flavor and quahty than 
most if not all other competitors in the American 
markets, for the reason that home-grown fruits may 
be allowed to ripen more fully, because the time of 
transportation is less ; and fruit ripened thus natu- 
rally is vastly superior to that cut green and cured in 
transit or in the markets. And, further, the equa- 



PR0DU0TI0X8. 147 

torial countries get their fruits into our markets 
during April, May, and June, after wliicli they be- 
come scarce. Florida sends her pines to market in 
June, July, and August ; so that, being later, they 
find a demand mainly after the tropical supply is 
exhausted. There need be no doubt that the trop- 
ics produce a fruit both larger and finer than the 
subtropics can hope to do. The Pernambuco pine, 
for example, whose habitat is within 10° of the 
equator, attains there a weight of eighteen or twen- 
ty pounds, according to some trustworthy authori- 
ties ; w^hereas it is not to be hoped that more than 
half that weight, under present cultivation at least, 
can be achieved in our country. 

It is not practicable to get full returns, or even 
trustworthy reckonings, of the latest crop of pine- 
apples ; but the area planted and the production are 
doubtless more than doubling every year. Mr. Eich- 
ards, of Eden, on lower Indian River, near the north- 
ern boundary-line of the subtropics, reports that up 
to the first of July last there had been shipped from 
that point about 1,000 barrels or barrel-crates of 
pineapples. Mr. Knight, of Sebastian Eiver — 27° 
48' — and Mr. Horsch are engaging somewhat large- 
ly in the raising of this fruit. 

The European markets have been tried with 



148 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

very limited sMpments of pines, and these mainly 
of the finer kinds. A prominent London firm of 
f rnit-dealers publishes the fact that they have sold 
Florida pines at twenty-five shillings sterling — that 
is, over six dollars — apiece ; but they do not mention 
the variety nor the size and weight of the fruit so 
sold. Another authority states that a pine weighing 
fifteen jpounds was sold in that city for three pounds 
sterling, about fifteen dollars, or a dollar a pound ! 

Bananas. — The banana will grow in both the 
semi-tropics and the subtropics ; but the surer crop 
and the finer fruit belong to the latter, as with all 
other tropical fruits. The kind most planted on 
the keys and on the east shore generally — and wher- 
ever winds are strong and frequent — is known as 
the dwarfbanana^ which stands from six to eight 
feet high. This is known to botanists as the Musa 
Cavendishii. The Reasoner Brothers consider this 
to be the same as the Chinese, called also dwarf Ja- 
maica or Martinique hanana. The yield of fruit is 
enormous, sometimes as many as two hundred or 
three hundred in a bunch, and the flavor excellent. 
Professor Whitner states that only the coarser varie- 
ty known as horse-hanana can be relied upon above 
the subtropical region. In this country the distinc- 
tion between banana and plantain is kept up, the 



PRODUCTIONS, 



149 




The Banana and the Pineapple. 

latter being the coarser and hardier kind ; but 
in India, pomocnlturists have abandoned the name 
hanana altogether, and treat all varieties of both un- 
der the name of jplantain. Of bananas in Florida, 
there are two varieties, commonly known and called 



150 THE FLORIDA OF TO -LAY, 

yellow and red respectively, from the color of the 
ripened fruit. The plantain, so called, is very rare. 

The banana is propagated from bulbs and suck- 
ers ; and these fruit the second year, never the first 
season. 

Moist soils, very rich, suit the banana best, and 
frequent rotation — some Spanish authorities say 
every three years — ^is necessary ; but higher lands 
yield fairly well with abundant rains ; and very tine 
qualities, of limited size, have been grown on sandy 
loam, well molded and moist ; but the richest of low 
hammocks are the best for this fruit. Still, the ex- 
periments thus far, as to soils, are by no means com- 
plete or final. The lands suitable for the banana as 
a crop of profit are quite limited in area, in the 
proper climate, and the crop is generally felt to be 
a rather risky one. From a thousand to twelve hun- 
dred to the acre is as close as the plants should be 
put out. Bananas are grown extensively by Mr. 
Baugh, on Sebastian Biver, in Brevard County. 

The bananas grown in Dade County have sold, 
several years ago, on the ground, as high as a dollar 
a bunch ; but about half of that is considered a very 
good price. 

This fruit is very nutritious as food, and the 
poor in some tropical countries — notably the semi- 



PRODUCTIONS. 151 

savages of Mexico — it is said, make bananas a cliief 
article of food. Humboldt is quoted as affirming 
that an area of land that would grow wheat enough 
to feed but one man would produce in bananas 
enough to feed twenty-five men. 

Professor Whitner, in his " Gardening in Flor- 
ida," gives the curious piece of information that the 
Spaniards at one time supposed the banana to be 
the original forbidden fruit mentioned in Genesis, 
and, from the fancied resemblance to a cross found 
in the marks on a transverse section, they claimed 
that in eating it Adam had a glimpse of the mys- 
tery of redemption by the cross. 

Pears. — The Le Conte pear grows in great luxu- 
riance in Northern Florida, throughout the splendid 
tier of counties between Jacksonville and Pensacola. 
Several other kinds — the Bartlett, Lawson, Japan, 
and some others— have been tried in the State, but 
none has found the conspicuous success of the Le 
Conte. This pear was introduced into Liberty 
County, Georgia, in 1856, by Major John Le Conte, 
who bought it, as Professor Whitner states, of some 
ISTorthern nursery-man for a seedling of the Chinese 
sand-pear. It turned out, however, to be utterly 
unlike the Chinese fruit, and very appropriately 
received the name of its introducer, Le Conte. 



152 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 

Further cultivation and development by Captain 
Yamadoe, of Thomasville, Georgia, made this pear 
what it is to-day, the best pear in the South. It is 
a hybrid, and must therefore be propagated by 
cuttings or slips. The tree begins to bear fruit at 
four or ^YQ years of age, and at ten sometimes 
stands twenty feet high, and bears ten to fifteen 
bushels of pears. The orchard-spacing should allow 
nearly forty feet between the trees. The pears sell 
at from $2 to $5 a bushel- crate. 

All along the line of railroad running westward 
from Jacksonville, and notably around Tallahassee, 
the visitor will be struck with the superb groves in 
all directions, rivaling both in picturesque beauty 
and prosaic profit the splendid orange groves of the 
semi-tropics farther south. E'orth Florida may well 
afford to forego the romance-invested orange-groves 
of the Orange Belt in view of these equally splendid 
Le Conte pear-groves. 

Grapes and Wine. — The experiment of growing 
first-class grapes for wine has been made in Florida, 
and with complete success. Mr. E. Dubois, an 
experienced wine-grower from France, has made a 
careful, full, and systematic trial of the soil and 
climate of ]S~orthern Florida with wine yielding 
grapes, and the very best results have rewarded 



PRODUCTIONS. 153 

him. He had prospected in several other parts of 
the United States before deciding npon his present 
place. In 1883 he began vineyards with a few 
acres in Leon County, near Tallahassee, and to-day 
has thirty acres planted in vines, mostly Cynthiana, 
^Norton, Elvira, and Missouri Riesling. In 1887 he 
had ten acres in bearing, and gathered twenty tons 
of grapes and made 2,500 gallons of wine — claret, 
hock, Santernes, and port — which to-day sells 
readily at from $1.25 to $2 a gallon. This year 
he will make at least 4,000 gallons. When the 
thirty acres reach the bearing stage, he can safely 
reckon on turning out from 8,000 to 10,000 gallons 
a year, and that means $12,000 or $15,000 a year. 

Less pronounced but still very satisfactory re- 
sults were reached by the late Colonel M. Martin in 
Gadsden County twenty years ago. In 1869 this 
earlier experiment was begun. The vineyards still 
yield large crops of grapes — Hartford Prolific, Ives, 
Concord, Delaware, Martha, and Cynthiana — from 
which first-class wines are duly manufactured. 

Besides the above-mentioned varieties, the Scup- 
pernong and that family of grapes have been grown 
in various parts of the State with varying results. 
In the southern half of the State several of the 
grapes mentioned have been tried with entirely 



154 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

satisfactory results. Just which varieties will suc- 
ceed in the subtropics has not been fully settled yet, 
bnt it seems certain that J^orthern Florida is better 
suited to the grape generally than the two more 
southern sections. Future efforts, however, may 
find varieties well suited to all sections. 

Grand Possibilities. — There are many tropical 
fruits yet on trial, as it were, in Subtropical Florida, 
of which the future is more or less undefined and 
undeterminable at present, but which may be de- 
fined as grand possibilities. 

Prominent among these possibilities are these : 
the guava, mango, mangosteen, mammee, mam- 
mee sapota, sapodilla, and most of the large Anona 
family. These fruits, all fine in their separate ways, 
are grown with perfect success perhaps only in the 
tropics, and they are well known to books and 
travelers. They are now on trial in Subtropical 
Florida, and a few of them have attained success. 
They are of course but little known, except by 
name, beyond the subtropics, on account of the 
impossibility of getting them to market in good 
condition with existing means of transportation. 
They are mainly saccharine-acid fruits, and need to 
ripen on the stem in order to develop their best 
qualities. Hence, there is not time after gathering 



PRODUGTIOI^S. 155 

to reach distant markets. Even railroads could not 
get them to Northern markets, for the reason that 
the agitation of the rail movement would, as in the 
case of new sugar, cause the fruit to decay rapidly 
by deliquescence or some similar process, unless the 
temperature be kept too low for that destructive 
process. What is wanted, accordingly, is either the 
refrigerator-car, or water-movement by steam, with- 
out transshipment between the producing groves and 
the consuming markets. With either of these — and 
of these the refrigerator seems by far the better, 
but experiments must decide their relative merits — 
most, if not all, of these delicious fruits can be put, 
in excellent condition, into the I^orthern and pos- 
sibly into the British markets. 

The guava is widely known through its jelly, so 
deservedly popular; but the fruit itself is little 
known beyond its habitat. The common guava 
grows easily and abundantly, reaching fully twenty 
feet in height sometimes, all through the subtropic 
counties, and in fact will live and bear fruit in both 
the subtropics and the semi -tropics ; but ]Mature's 
rule is inflexible — the farther north it is planted the 
more uncertain is its growth, the smaller the tree or 
shrub, and the scarcer and poorer the fruit. Its 
success in Monroe, Dade, and Lee is not at all 



156 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



problematical. Tliere it ripens some seven or eight 
montlis in the year, from May till January, say, 

but most abundantly in 
summer. 

Two varieties are quite 
common, and are called 
the sweet and the sour or 
acid. The former is the 
kind most commonly eat- 
en, while the latter alone 
will make jelly of the first 
quality, unassisted with 
culinary aids. The shape 
is that known as 7yhali- 
forme, although it is more 
nearly that of a lemon 
than of an apple. It is of this guava — the Psidium 
gua^ava—thsit the Eeasoner Brothers say: ''The 
guava has become a necessity to South Florida ; is 
to South Florida what the peach is to Georgia." 
The Cattley guava was introduced from China by 
an Englishman who gave it his name. This is 
more hardy than the common, is more a shrub, 
and will stand the semi-tropical climate doubtless 
very well, although it has not been yet very thor- 
oughly tested. 




Guava. 



PRODUCTIONS. 157 

The mango lias been tried with a measure of 
success in the extreme south ; and as far north as 
the mouth of Tampa Bay — not far from 28° — it is 
reported to have done well, but even there it is 
risky. One tree of the apricot variety in that 
region, owned by Mr. Neeld, of Pinellas, at eight 
years old bore 8,000 mangos one year. The freeze 
of 1886 proves that this is rather far north for this 
tropical fruit. The tree usually bears fruit in five 
or six years from the seed. There are two kinds 
planted in Florida, and it is yet on the experimental 
list, except on the extreme south coast and the 



Firminger, writing of the large Maid a mango in 
India, its habitat, says, " To those who have never 
partaken of it, no words can convey an idea of this 
exquisitely luscious fruit " ; and another apprecia- 
tive writer says that the pulp of the choice varieties 
is of the consistency of blanc-mange, so as to be 
eaten with a spoon, and rivaling if not excelling any 
fruit in the world for deliciousness of flavor. This 
is what Northern consumers may hope to get should 
the growing and transportation prove a success in 
Florida; and it contrasts sharplj^ with the pitiful 
greenish, shriveled, turpentine-flavored little mangos 
sometimes, but luckily not often, found in Northern 



158 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 



markets. The mango is often as large as a goose- 
egg. The Eeasoner Brothers say : " We can not 
speak too highly of this delectable fruit, destined, 
we hope, to become as plentiful in South Florida as 
the orange. In productiveness and rapidity of 
growth it surpasses any fruit-tree we have ever seen, 




Mango, 

either temperate or tropical. Some trees in Central 
America — latitude about 16° — are described as hav- 
ing trunks four feet in diameter, the trees standing 
sixty feet apart, and yet the branches touch." In the 
subtropics, of course, these tropical trees fall corre- 
spondingly short of such proportions; but Florida 



PRODUCTIONS, 169 

can already boast several well-grown trees. The 
Guatemala mango in Florida ripens as early as 
March, but the regular season is later than that. Of 
the Cuban varieties an excellent authority considers 
the lobed apple the best. The subtropical nursery- 
men offer twelve varieties, and all of these will in 
due time be fully tested. Lots of Florida-grown 
mangos have sold at forty cents a dozen. Trees 
should have about thirty feet space ordinarily. 
They do best in high, well-drained land. 

The mangosteen^ it is claimed, has been tried 
with success in the extreme south, but there is doubt 
as to the genuineness of the variety. The true 
mangosteen — the Garcinia mangostana — is being 
planted in Monroe and Dade Counties, and a few 
years more will decide ; and many persons have 
large faith in the success. The fruit is probably 
superior to the mango, which is praised so enthu- 
siastically by tropical writers, and is about the size 
of an orange. 

The mammee is a handsome tree, somewhat like 
the Magnolia grandiflora. Its success in Sub- 
tropical Florida is well assured, having been grown 
some years on the keys. How far up it can grow 
remains to be proved, but the probabilities are 
against it above the subtropics. The fruit — some- 



160 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

times called the mammee-apple, and among the Span- 
iards known as the mamey — is round and brown, 
three to six inches in diameter, containing one to 
fonr seeds, as large as walnuts, surrounded bv a 
yellow, juicy pulp, most delicious, and needing no 
acquired taste to be enjoyed. The taste is not un- 
like the apricot or summer peach. The tree is a 
native of the Caribbee Islands, and in Jamaica is 
said to be one of the largest and most valuable tim- 
ber-trees. 

The mammee sapota is remotely like the mam- 
mee, but is different in most respects. The fruit of 
this is oval, its longest diameter from three to six 
inches. It has one large, long seed in the center. 
The pulp is of a rich saffron-color and is described 
in terms of extravagant praise ; it is called natural 
marmalade, from its resemblance to marmalade of 
quinces. The tree is known in some localities as 
the marmalade- tree. It is the Achras mammosa, 
and is native in Central America. It is reported to 
have fruited successfully on the southern keys; 
but more time is needed to confirm the probability 
that it will succeed in Florida. 

The avocado pear — corrupted into alligator 
pear, and by the Spaniards popularly called the 
agiiacate — is a native of the West Indies, and has 



PRODUCTIONS. 161 

been successfully grown a number of years in Sub- 
tropical Florida. It is pear-shaped, and from that 
alone appears to have received its misnomer of pear. 
Tropical-sea sailors call it midshipman's butter. 
The tree is known to botanists as the Pei'sea gra- 
tissima. The taste for the fruit is generally an 
acquired one ; but, as in the case of most such 
fruits, the partiality for it is intense. It is a stone- 
fruit, large, greenish-brown in color, with pulp of a 
bright yellow color, and taste unique and of decided 
character. The tree is propagated from the seed, 
and will usually fruit in about five years from the 
planting. The freeze of 18S6 interfered with the 
trees down to the boundary-line of the subtropics 
proper. It may be planted with safety anywhere 
within that subdivision. 

The sapodillcc is a native of Jamaica, and grows 
well on the Florida Keys and on the adjacent main- 
land ; that is, in the subtropics. It is the AcJiras 
sapota, and is called by the Spaniards sapote. It is 
a handsome tree, and is propagated from the seed, 
fruiting in six or seven years from the planting. 
The fruit is round, rusty brown, two or three inches 
in diameter, the taste being that of a rich, sweet, 
juicy pear, with granulated pulp and almond- shaped 
seed. The quality of the fruit is very high, equal 
11 



162 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

perhaps to tliat of the mango ; and it is preferred 
by many to that fruito It is very hard to transport, 
from the fact that it needs to ripen on the stem in 
order to be at its best. The 1886 freeze proved 
that the sapodilla can not be safely grown anywliere 
north of the subtropical strip. It thrives at Lake 
Worth in Dade — latitude 26° 40^ — and was not 
hurt by the cold of 1886. 

Of the numerous family of the Anonas four 
appear to have proved eminently successful in Sub- 
tropical Florida, and some of them well up into the 
semi-tropical region. The four are the guanabena, 
cherimoya, sugar-apple, and custard-apple. 

The guoMobeiia, popularly called sour-sop, is the 
Anona Tmbvicata.^ a native of the West Indies. The 
fruit is described by the Keasoner Brothers as " a 
large, green, prickly fruit, six or eight inches long, 
containing a soft, white, juicy pulp, which in fresh, 
well-ripened specimens is delicious." Mr. Gosse 
says it is "lusciously sweet and of a delightful 
acidity; often larger than a child's head; covered 
with prickles." It is the tenderest of the Anonas.^ 
and can live only in the extreme southern rim of 
Florida and on the keys. The frait sometimes 
weighs fonr pounds, and retails in the Key West 
fiuit-stores at sixty cents each. 



PRODUCTIONS. 163 

The cherimoya is the Anoyia cherimolia^ and 
in Key West is frequently called the Jamaica ap- 
ple, and sometimes dieriinoyer. The frnit varies 
in size from that of an orange to six inches in di- 
ameter. It is a native of Peru. It will thrive only 
in the subtropics, Dr, Seemann, as quoted by Pro- 
fessor Whitner, says: "The pineapple, the man- 
gosteen, and the cherimoya are considered the finest 
fruits in the world. I have tasted them in those 
locahties in which they are supposed to attain their 
highest perfection — the pineapple in Guayaquil, 
the mangosteen in the Indian Archipelago, and the 
cherimoya on the slopes of the Andes — and if T 
were called npon to act the part of Paris, I would 
without hesitation assign the apple to the cherimoya. 
Its taste, indeed, surpasses that of every other fruit, 
and Haenke was right when he called it the master- 
piece of l^ature." 

The sugar-apple is known to some as the sweet- 
sop^ and to others as the hulloclc^s heart. Professor 
Whitner calls it the Anona reticulata, while the 
Reasoner Brothers catalogue it as the Anona squa- 
mosa. It is mnch grown in Key West, and has 
found its way into subtropical regions generally. 
The tree is a shrub frequently, of very large size 
generally in the extreme sonth, but smaller farther 



104 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

north. Professor Whitner sajs the fruit looks much 
as a raspberry would of the same size, with its de- 
pressions as if quilted. It sometimes grows to be as 
large as a man's two fists, and is of a dark-brown 
color. The pulp is of a reddish-yellow color, about 
the consistence of custard, and exceedingly sweet ; 
some think it too sweet. It is the most difficult of 
all these fruits to transport ; and refrigeration is 
psrhaps the only way in which they can ever be 
got to the markets of the outside world. 

The custojrd-ajpple — the Anona reticulata — is 
not to be confounded with the A. glabra^ or the 
wild ;po7id-apple of South Florida. The former is a 
fine fruit, while the latter is utterly worthless. The 
true custard- apple is larger than an apple, or nearly 
as large as an orange. In India it is prized very 
highly and cultivated with care ; and for experiment 
care should be taken to get the true fruit. 

Yet other Fruits. — Besides the above-mentioned, 
there are a good many others that are on trial in 
Florida, many of them with reasonable chances of 
success. Of these, some have a much larger area 
than this State ; some are too tropical to stand its 
climate; and some are of questionable utility. 

The date-jpahn is a stately tree, handsome. Ori- 
ental, and reaches, under the most favorable circum- 



PROLTJGTIONS. 



105 



stances, about eighty feet. It is equal in landscape 
effects to the cocoaniit. It is the Phoenix dacty- 




The Date-Palm. 



lifera of the botanists, and bears fruit in about 
eight years. The matured tree is said to yield 
from three hundred to five hundred pounds of fruit 



166 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

a year. There are date-palms in the monastic gar- 
den of Bordigliera, Italy, said to be over a thousand 
years old. Yon Mtiller states that trees from one 
hundred to two hundred years old continue to pro- 
duce their annual crops of fruit. The Reasoner 
Brothers write that this common date-palm has pro- 
duced fruit on Cumberland Island, Georgia, and in 
St. Augustine for many years, and is well adapted 
to the soil of Florida. It ordinarily reaches the age 
of ten to twenty years before producing fruit, but 
rare instances are know^n of trees producing fruit at 
three to four years. Some trees on Lake Worth, in 
Dade County, bore fruit at seven years. The mar- 
ket value of the date in Florida is yet to be deter- 
mined. The family of pahns is a numerous one. 

The tamarind is from both India and Africa, 
and is raised easily from seed. The Reasoner Broth- 
ers consider it more hardy than the guava ; and in 
Key West it is a common street tree. It has foliage 
like the acacia, the fruit being a legume or pod in- 
closing a pleasant acid pulp and the seeds. The 
pulp is excellent for preserves, cooling drinks, and 
medicine, being rich in formic and butyric acid, and 
is pleasant to eat as fruit. The tree sometimes at- 
tains the height of eighty feet ; and one tree over a 
foot in diameter near Manatee, in Manatee County 



PRODUCTIONS. 167 

—about 27° 30', Gnlf side— was killed by the 
freeze of 1886. 

The fomegrmiate — the Punica granatum doubt- 
less — is about the size of a peach-tree. The fruit of 
the sweet variety is pleasant to eat, while the sour is 
more commonly used in making cooling acid drinks. 
The newly imported variety known as the Spanish 
Euby is said to be the finest of all the Punicas. 
One writer says, " Of all the fruits we have ever 
tasted in our temperate climate, the Spanish Ruby 
pomegranate and the Adriatic fig are the two finest." 
This is a good grower and bountiful bearer; and 
the fruit ships well, ripening in December. It will 
doubtless do well all over Florida. 

The Spanish lime is not of the citrus family at 
all, but is the Melicocca hijuga ; and the Spaniards 
call it momonGillo. The tree grows to the height 
of about tliirty feet in the West Indies, and would 
do well, no doubt, in Subtropical Florida, but not 
north of that region. The fruit is like a plum, yelr 
low, with pleasant pulp and central seed ; and the 
seed is edible, somewhat like a chestnut. The tree 
is hard to make live, and at first grows very 
slowly. 

The loquat — the Eriobotrya japonica, said by 
some to be the same as the Mesjoihcs japonica — 



168 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

grows to be about fifteen feet higli. It will grow 
in ail parts of Florida, tliongli in some places it 
does but moderately well as a fruit-bearer. It grows 
readily from tlie seed. The fruit is in clusters, and 
is about the size of a plum, w^ith a thick skin of a 
dull reddish color. The leaf is tough, lanceolate, 
having a bright-green top and a brownish velvety 
under side. It is sometimes called the Ja'pan med- 
lar. 

The Japan pershmnon^ or date-plum, is the 
Biospyros Icahi, and is grown in all parts of 
Florida. The tree bears fruit frequently at one 
year of age. The fruit is about two inches in di- 
ameter, and has the general appearance of a smooth 
tomato, being of a bright-red color, delicious taste, 
and ripens in the autumn. The stone in the center 
is somewhat like an almond. The tree is best prop- 
agated by budding or grafting. The tree has been 
successfully growm now so many years that its stand 
is well assured. 

The alcee is a native of Africa. Botanists know 
it as the Blighia sapida. In Africa and India it 
seems to be a large tree, but in Florida rarely gets 
above ten feet in height. One writer describes the 
fruit as of the size and form of a small lemon, some- 
what ribbed, and, when ripe, of a beautiful ver- 



PRODUCTIOXS. 1G9 

milion color. In the West Indies, where it grows 
well, it ranks with the nectarine in quality of fruit. 
In Jamaica it is used as a vegetable, and cooked by 
parboiHng and frying ; and, thus prepared, is popu- 
larly known as vegetable marrow. 

Bread-fruit is a blundering name applied by the 
ignorant to perhaps half a dozen different and dis- 
tinct fruits. Professor Whitner thinks the Arto- 
carj)us incisus of the Pacific islands entitled to the 
name. Kingsley describes the tree in these words : 
"That awkward-boughed tree, with huge green 
fruit and deeply cut leaves, oue foot or more across, 
is a bread-fruit tree." The fruit is oval, sometimes 
eight inches in diameter. There are no seeds, and 
the farinaceous pulp may be eaten fresh, when it 
"resembles bread made with eggs." When fully 
ripe it becomes sweet and resembles clammy cake. 
An Englishman writing from India says that sliced 
and fried it seemed to him hardly distinguishable 
from excellent batter-pudding. Hartwig informs 
his readers that there are whole islands in Polynesia 
that de23end for food upon this bountiful bearer of 
fruit-vegetables for several months in the year. In 
Honduras the leaves are said to be by actual meas- 
urement two feet wide by three in length. In 
Florida this wonderful tree, with its more wonder- 



170 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

fill frait, has not jet been grown with full success ; 
but nursery-men are ofiering it for sale, and experi- 
ments now in progress will assuredly settle the ques- 
tion within the next few years. It is, however, 
useless to spend time with experimenting above the 
southern subtropics. 

Cacao was so highly esteemed by Linngeus that 
he gave it the striking name of Theobroma — food 
for a god. The Mexicans call it chocolate whence 
the English word chocolate. It is found in most 
tropical countries ; and Professor Whitner holds that 
it is highly probable that it will succeed in the sub- 
tropics of Florida. The "American Cyclopsedia" 
describes the cacao as an evergreen, producing fruit 
and flowers throughout the year. If unchecked it 
attains a height of about thirty feet, and resembles 
in size and shajDC a black-heart cherry-tree. The 
leaves are smooth and oblong, terminating in a sharp 
point. The fruit resembles a short, thick cucumber, 
Ave or six inches long, and three and a half inches 
in diameter. It contains from twenty to forty 
beans. These are arranged in a pulp of a pinkish- 
white color, in five rows. Their size is about that 
of a sweet almond, but thicker. In Central America 
the fruit is much larger, being from seven to nine 
inches in length and three to four inches in diame- 



PRODUCTIONS. 171 

ter, and contains from forty to fifty seeds. In the 
West India Islands and in Demerara it is so small 
as to contain only from six to fifteen seeds. The 
rind of the fruit is smooth, thick, tough, and taste- 
less. The pulp which incloses the bean is a sweet, 
sKghtly acid substance, something like that of the 
water-melon, and is used for food. The fruit ma- 
tures in June and December. The beans when 
separated from the pulp and dried in the sun 
are ready for market. The shell is of a dark- 
brown color, and furnishes the cocoa-shells of com- 
merce. The seeds yield by expression an oil that 
is very nutritious, and acts as an anodyne. All 
the cacao-land in Florida lies, doubtless, in Mon- 
roe County. 

The durian is a native of the Malay peninsula, 
and in its habitat grows to be eighty feet high ; and 
it is very doubtful if it can be successfully grown 
anywhere in Florida, although some have faith in 
the experiments now making with it. The fruit is 
oval in shape, and ten inches in its longest diameter. 
It has a thick rind, covered with strong and hard 
prickles. It is divided into five cells, each contain- 
ing from one to four seeds, as large as a pigeon's 
^gg ; and surrounding these is the edible pulp, 
which is delicious, and of a cream-color» A full- 



172 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

bearing tree will produce two hundred durians a 
year. It is propagated from seed. 

The jack-fruity or yachfruit^ known to botanists 
as the Artocarpus integrifoliits, is from India ; and 
its success even in extreme South Florida is by no 
means yet assured. Firminger, speaking of this fruit, 
calls it " one of the largest in existence, and an ill- 
shapen, somewhat oval-formed, unattractive-looking 
fruit. The interior is of a soft, fibrous consistency, 
with the edible portions scattered here and there. 
By those who can manage to eat it, it is considered 
most delicious, possessing the rich, spicy scent and 
flavor of the melon, but to such a powerful degree 
as to be quite unbearable to those unaccustomed, to 
it." The situation of the fruit is said to vary with 
the age of the tree, being first borne on the 
branches, then on the trunk, and in old trees on 
the roots. Those borne on the roots, which discover 
themselves by the cracking of the earth above them, 
are held in highest estimation. 

The liuronda^ w^hich is the Carissa carandas, 
is somewhat like the damson-plum. The tree is 
small, and the fruit contains a number of small 
seeds. The fruit in India, the habitat of the tree, 
matures in August and September. It has not been 
tried in Florida, and some hope for its success there. 



PRODUCTIONS. 173 

The lichee — NejpTieliitm lichi — is an East India 
tree, and fruit-growers in South Subtropical Florida 
mean to give it a trial there. The fruit is of the 
size of a large plum, and grows on a shrub. It is a 
spring frait, ripening in May. One admiring writer 
says of the pulp of the lichee that it is '^ as delicious, 
perhaps, as that of any fruit in existence," and re- 
sembles the white of a plover's Qg^^ containing a 
stone in the center. The tree is propagated from 
the seed. 

The jpapaw, botanically called Carica 2)ct2Mya, 
grows well generally throughout Subtropical Flor- 
ida, but does not rank as a first-class fruit. The 
wild variety, indigenous in the State, is not to be 
confounded with the finer variety grown for its 
fruit. The stalk — it is not a tree — attains the height 
of twenty -five feet at its best and in the extreme 
south, but it often bears good fruit when less than 
ten feet high. It has no branches, but a crown of 
leaves, among which the papaws grow. The fruit is 
a good deal like a musk-melon, with a diameter of 
from three to six inches, ribbed on the outside, of a 
dull orange color, having a rind thick and fleshy, 
with a mass of black seeds inside. It is eaten raw, 
and tastes remotely like a musk-melon. The stalk, 
Professor Whitner states, "abounds with a milky, 



1Y4 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

bitter juice, which contains j^Jrm, a principle which, 
with this sole known exception, belongs to the animal 
kingdom. A few drops of this jnice mixed with 
water will in a few minutes, it is said, render tough 
meat very tender. The same effect is produced bj 
wrapping the meat up in a leaf and keeping it so 
overnight." 

The nutmeg has not been fully tried in Florida, 
but many believe that it will do well there. It is 
the Myristlca fragrans ; and the tree grows to 
the height of twenty or thirty feet, and looks 
something like a pear-tree. The leaves are five 
or six inches long and pointed, in color of a 
deep, dark green. The fruit is described as pear- 
shaped, about the size of a peach, consisting of a 
fleshy pericarp, which, on ripening breaks open into 
two nearly equal valves, exposing the seed and its 
appendages. This exterior part of the fruit is 
about an inch thick, yellowish brown, with an as- 
tringent juice. In collecting the crop this is thrown 
away. The tree bears in eight years from the 
seed, reaches its full bearing in fifteen years, and 
will continue bearing about eighty. The average 
yield of a tree is five pounds of nutmegs and one 
pound and a half of mace — the substance envelop- 
ing the seed. 



PRODUCTION'S. 175 

Coffee — the Coffea Arahica — is recommended by 
Professor Wliitner for trial in Southern Florida. It 
was planted several years ago on the Manatee Kiver 
by Mrs. Atzeroth, and on Lake Worth by Mr. Spen- 
cer. The former shrubs were killed to the ground, 
by the freeze of 1886, but have sprouted up again. 
The latter were not hurt by the same freeze. Both 
plantings have yielded fruit — or berries — but they 
have not taken coffee from the list of not-demon- 
strated productive crops for Florida. It is propa- 
gated from the seed. The fruit when ripe is red 
and resembles a cherry, and the flesh surrounding 
the two seeds is sweetish and rather palatable. 

Tea has been grown in J^Torth Florida for a 
good many years. It will grow in several of the 
Southern States. 

There remain to be mentioned yet others : 

The olive, which is on trial and is expected to 
succeed. 

The fig, which grows and fruits in great lux- 
uriance in all parts of the State, but notably in the 
northern tier of counties. 

The peach, which does well in Northern Flor- 
ida, especially the Peen-To and Honey, which will 
probably do well all over the State — 2,000 crates 
shipped from Waldo this year. 



176 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

The quince, some varieties of which, especially 
the Chinese and the orange, do well. 

The ajpple, a few varieties of which have proved 
measurably successful in ]N"orthern Florida ; and, 

The jujiibe — the Zizyjphus jiijuba — a whole- 
some fruit from India, which ought to be tried 
more thoroughly than has yet been done. 

In addition to all these there are the nuts, many 
of which have a degree of commercial importance. 
Among these are the pecan, the almond, and the 
pistachio-nut. 

The pecan has been grown successfully now 
S3veral years in l^orthern Florida, and is on trial 
in both the other sections ; and in a few years 
doubtless it will appear that it will thrive in all 
parts of the State. It is the Carya olivcBformis, 
the best and most prolific variety of which, for 
Florida cultivation, seems to be the large Texas; 
but the paper-sliell meets the wishes of many. 
The tree is a large, handsome one, and wants a rich, 
w^ell-drained soil. 

The almond— gwQn by the Reasoner Brothers 
as the Terminalia catappa — is common in Key 
West and on some of the other keys adjacent. A 
few good specimens have been grown as far north 
as Manatee and Lake Worth, and they promise well. 



PRODUCTIONS. 177 

The pistachio-nut is the Pistachia t'era, which 
grows in England in sheltered places and in favor- 
able portions of France ; which ought to do well in 
the Southern States generally and especially in 
J^orthern Florida. The tree is twenty to thirty feet 
high when well grown, the fruit being a stone-fruit 
or drupe about the size of an olive. The seed or 
nut is about an inch long, of a greenish color when 
fresh. 

The strawberry may not be more prolific and 
fine in Florida than in some other States, but the 
fact that it matures there earlier than anywhere 
farther north makes it an important article among 
the fruit productions of that State. The most profit- 
able results can be got by strawberry-culture in the 
subtropics, for the reason that the berries can be 
ripened there before those from higher latitudes 
can reach the markets. The subtropical fruit can 
be put into the E'ew York market fully a month 
earlier than can that from the northern parts of the 
State ; but, at the same time, fewer varieties will 
thrive in the extreme south. Subsoil irrigation is 
destined to work important changes in this crop. 
At Daytona, in Yolusia County, on the Atlantic 
coast — latitude 29° 10^ — this irrigation has been 

tried with phenomenal success ; and the indications 
12 



178 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

are tliat in this way all tlie drawbacks in the south 
can be overcome, and the berries grown and ma- 
tured at the will of the grower — ^in December as 
well as in February. With present appliances, 
strawberries can be gathered in January, anywhere 
in the subtropics, and a fortnight to a month later 
in the higher regions. Subsoil irrigation can m.ake 
both appreciably earlier, maturing the very earliest 
for market in December if desired. All kinds of 
the berry, it seems, do well in the northern tier of 
counties. For the extreme south horticulturists 
recommend the JSTunan or CharleFton Seedling, and 
perhaps the Bidwell, as least likely to bnrn. On 
the St. John's Kisser a common return is about 
2,000 quarts to the acre, while in Clay and Gads- 
den yields of from 6,000 to 8,000 quarts to the acre 
have been reported. Strawberries have frequently 
sold for $2.50 a quart in l^ew York in winter, and 
in early spring for $1 a quart. From Mandarin 
on the St. John's last year there were shipped North 
50,000 quarts, and these sold at from $2 to 20 
cents a quart, the net average of the whole being 
25 cents a quart. 

Tobacco. — This crop has for many years — in 
fact, ever since its beginning in 1829 — claimed a 
fair measure of public attention; but in the last 



PRODUCTIONS. 179 

few years a great deal has been done in this di- 
rection. In 1850 the tobacco crop was 998,614 
pounds, the greater part of which was grown in 
Gadsden County. The crop increased gradually 
until the war, and then fell off rapidly, and re- 
mained very small until the incubus of reconstruc- 
tion was lifted from the State in 1876, since which 
time a quickening of this industry with most oth- 
ers has set in. The '' Florida Tobacco Plant " pre- 
dicts that the present year's planting will be 4,000 
acres, and that the crop will he probably between 
1,000,000 and 1,500,000 pounds of the hnest tobac- 
co — this mostly in Gadsden, Columbia, Leon, and 
Suwannee Counties, Gadsden still ahead of all oth- 
ers. A prominent business man now engaged in 
tobacco culture predicts that there will be in a few 
years 100,000 acres planted. 

A company has been formed recently — the Flor- 
ida Tobacco Producing and Trading Company — 
and its agents have bought lands in Gadsden Coun- 
ty. They planted last spring a thousand acres, put- 
ting out about six million tobacco-plants. Some of 
the varieties planted yield 600 pounds of fine to- 
bacco to the acre, and others will yield from 1,000 
to 1,500 pounds. 

Another enterprise is starting in Columbia 



180 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

County. A Mr. F. A. Gonzalez has been three or 
four years engaged in growing fine tobaccos there, 
and decides that Florida is better than Cuba for the 
business. The experts with their families are ex- 
pected soon to occupy the place. Beyond doubt 
there are fortunes in this business, especially thus 
conducted by experts in all its branches. These 
men have all the advantages of generations of 
skilled business men — men equal to those cultivat- 
ing the famous Yuelto Aba jo district in Cuba, who 
bid fair to transfer the fame of that favored region 
to E'orthern Florida. Cuba has proved herself, as a 
tobacco-producing land, equal to Sumatra ; and now 
Florida bids fair to snatch the crown from both. 
Mr. Gonzalez has been offered sixty cents a pound 
for the tobacco just grown, but declines to sell, and 
proposes to manufacture it. 

The soils in Florida especially suited to tobacco 
are comparatively limited in area, however ; and 
this fact must be kept in mind. 

The phenomenally large yield of fine tobacco in 
Florida is the best assurance that that is a vitally im- 
portant field for revenue. The average yield is over 
500 pounds to the acre, and 1,500 pounds to the 
acre is counted as possible. More than this figure 
has been grown in Florida. Now, when 600 pounds 



PRODUCTIONS. 181 

of tobacco, worth from forty to sixty cents a pound, 
can 1)6 grown as an average crop, surely a grand 
future is before the tobacco-culturist. 

The manufacture of tobacco in Florida is an in- 
dustry well established and developing w^ith re- 
markable speed. The climate is exceptionally well 
adapted to cigar-itiaking. There are now between 
200 and 300 cigar-factories in Florida, nearly all 
using Cuban leaf ; but when Florida can grow the 
leaf as well as manufacture it, the profits will be 
vastly increased. The number of cigars now manu- 
factured in the State is just 87,20-1,335. 

Eecent experiments in Dade and Lee Counties 
prove beyond question that the extreme south is 
very well adapted to this industry. One writer 
claims that in these counties 1,200 pounds to the 
acre can be produced. 

It is obvious, accordingly, that the above facts 
and considerations show that both Northern Florida 
and the extreme south are well, and equally w^ell, 
suited to the growing of first-quality tobacco ; prove 
beyond all reasonable doubt that the whole State is 
admirably adapted to the cultivation of the weed. 

There are claimed to be nearly 200 factories in 
Key West, employing 3,000 operatives, and doing a 
business of $5,000,000 a year. Some experts are 



182 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

said to make $200 a month. The amount disbursed 
by the factories alone is given as $2,5005000 a year. 

Cotton. — Among the productions of the State, 
cotton ranks second, kimber being first in value. 
The cotton is both long-staple or sea-island, and 
short-sfaple or upland. The former is by far the 
more important. 

Of this long-staple, the Florida crop of 1887 was 
30,991 bags, while that of Georgia was 6,411, and 
that of South Carolina was 7,735 ; an aggregate 
American crop of 45,137 bags. These are the esti- 
mates of Alexander & Co., and show that Florida 
produces more than two thirds of the American 
crop. The bag weighs about 350 pounds. Texas 
at one time tried the crop, but gave it up, leaving 
now but tlie three States named producing this cot- 
ton. The main markets for the long-staple are Sa- 
vannah and Cliarleston. At the close of the war 
Great Britain manufactured practically all the crop ; 
but to-day the American mills spin nearly a half of 
it; that is, 20,515 bags against 25,216. Florida 
could easily double its present crop if the means 
and resources were properly directed. A large 
manufactory established at home — and such a one 
is under consideration by practical busmess men — 
would speedily develop this maximum capacity, and 



PRODUCTION'S. 183 

at the same time enhance the prices of the ma- 
terial. 

The short-staple or upland cotton of Florida 
amomits to about 30,000 bales of 500 poimds. This 
will be the rival of tobacco, as the region growing 
the latter is the same as that of the former, to a 
great extent at least — the ]N"orth Florida country. 
One advantage that Florida has over the other 
short-staple producers is that of having earlier sea- 
sons, and consequently earlier crops, which come 
into market while prices are better. Another ad- 
vantage is the superior quality of the more southern 
fiber. 

The aggregate value of the cotton crop has been 
estimated at nearly $4,000,000. 

Silk. — In the list of the textile fabrics of Florida 
silk follows cotton, not so much for what has been 
actually accGmplished as for the well-assured future 
that seems before it. As in the case of grapes for 
wine, the experiment in silk has been carefully, 
intelligently, and successfully made by a competent 
expert from abroad. Mr. C. G. Contini, an. Italian 
silk-grower of ability and experience from Lom- 
bardy, known to silk-business men as the best center 
for silk in the world, came four years ago with his 
own variety of worm-eggs, settled in Florida, and 



184 THE FLO BID A OF TO-DAY. 

has grown silk of the first quality and in such quan- 
tity as to indicate quite clearly that Florida is one 
of the best places in the world for silk-culture ; this 
on account of both soil and climate. He finds 
already in Florida, and easily propagated to any de- 
sired extent, the best mulberries for this purpose — 
the white mulberry or Morus alba, and the Morus 
multicaidis, which has a history in America. Mr. 
Contini holds that the alba is far better than the 
others, especially for the southern counties, because 
the summer leaves are tenderer. These trees are 
the ones used in Lombardy. They should be 
planted not closer than two hundred to the acre. 
Other mulberries are used to feed silk-worms, such 
as the Russian with small leaves, the Morus jajpon- 
ica, and the black or wild mulberry ; but the silk 
yielded is stringy and colorless. In Ohio osage- 
orange leaves, and even white salad and lettuce, are 
sometimes fed to hungry worms ; but the cocoons 
thus fed are of no value. 

The climate of Florida is equal to that of Italy, 
and better than that of France, in being more equa- 
ble and temperate ; the south of the State being 
better than the north of it for the same reasons. 
The number of crops a year increases with the 
better climate. Perhaps two crops a year north of 



PRODUCTION'S. 185 

Sanford and three south of that line may be grown ; 
but experiment has not gone far enough to establish 
any very definite rule upon that point. 

It takes intelligent and persevering efforts to 
command success in this as in all other undertakings ; 
but with these Mr. Contini holds that sericulture 
may be made the most profitable industry in the 
State — better than orange-growing, in yielding more 
profit with less watching, risk, and expense the year 
ronnd. It takes two to four years to get well 
started, however. Feebler hands can do most of 
the work, too ; and a man with a growing family 
can make from $1,000 to $1,300 a crop, six weeks 
to a crop, and make two or three crops a year, 
according to locality and latitude, and the current 
expense need not be above a third of that income. 

A company has been organized in Jacksonville 
to push forward this attractive industry. They pro- 
pose to grow silk, and to buy in all that produced 
throughout the State ; and, as soon as the industry 
is on its legs, establishments for the manufacture — 
reeling, spinning, and weaving — of silk fabrics will 
be started. They are planting out some 300 acres 
in Morus multiGaulis, that being accepted as the 
best — the most largely silk-producing — for that 
latitude and climate. In the manufacturing depart- 



186 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 

ments there will be improved macliinery, beginning 
with the reeling and ending with the completed 
fabric. 

The single thread of an ordinarily good cocoon is 
about a mile in length. It takes about five pounds 
of cocoons to produce one pound of reeled raw silk. 
The thread of good silk is very strong, and the 
color a deep straw shade. 

Following silk, with a long interval, however, 
are — • 

Ramie ^ which as raw fiber is worth in Florida 
$80 a ton. 

Sisal heinj)^ one of the agaves, toward the culti- 
vation of which only spasmodic efforts have been 
made, and next to nothing has resulted. 

Jiite^ merely among the possibilities of the 
future ; and 

Yucca, a native ornamental feature which may 
have an economic use when scores of other veins 
have been exhausted. 

Lumber.— By all odds the most important pro- 
duction of- Florida industries, reckoned in dollars 
and cents, is lumber. It has been reckoned at five 
times the value of the cotton-crop, or nearly 
twenty million dollars, but that is manifestly ex- 
cessive. 



PRODUCTIONS. 187 

The cb-ief item is the yellow pine, next cjprecs, 
and then cedar, oak, walnut, cherry, jnniper, mag- 
nulia, hickory, beech, willow, bay, and so on to the 
end of the chapter. Of yellow pine there is an 
area of some 20,000 square miles. The superiority 
of this over all other pines as lumber is well known 
to builders ; and houses covered with winter-cut 
shingles of cypress will last forty years, and for 
many other building purposes this wood has won- 
derfully staying properties. The cedar-factories at 
Cedar Keys yield immense supplies in the way of 
pencil-wood. 

Professor A. H. Curtiss, as botanist under the 
General Government, explored the State and made 
some very valuable and interesting reports embody- 
ing bis best results. He classes as trees all plants 
having solid, woody stems as much as four inches in 
diameter, growing erect or nearly so, and without 
support. The number stated he finds to be forty- 
seven per cent of all the trees of the United States, 
and a half more than found in any other State. He 
gives a list of uses, with the trees adapted to each 
respectively. This list embraces about one half of 
the Florida trees given in his general catalogue. 

Professor Curtiss's list here follows, consisting of 
thirty-five uses and about one hundred trees : 



188 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 




PRODUCTIONS. 1S9 

AgriGultiiral Imjylements. — Ked and pig-nut 
hickory, wliite and green ash, white, overcup, and 
chestnut oak. 

Baskets. — Eed hickory, pig-nut hickory, tough 
white oak, swamp chestnut-oak. 

Broom-Handles. — White bay, tupelo. 

Building.— For general construction a large 
variety of woods may be used, but pine is found 
most convenient, economical, and generally satisfac- 
tory. For all work that is exposed to the weather, 
either long-leaved yellow or pitch pine should be 
used. The latter serves almost as well for framing 
timbers, but for sills is not so durable. For sheath- 
ing and inside work generally short-leaved yellow 
and loblolly pine may be used. 

Cabinet-work and Furniture. — Poplar, mag 
nolia, white cypress, curly pine, birch, beech, chest- 
nut, white oak, black walnut, red bay, white and 
green ash, sweet-gum, cherry, red and sugar maple, 
holly, loblolly bay, china-berry, and many of the 
subtropical woods. For cheap furniture, silver ma- 
ple, hackberry, sycamore, linn, and pine are used. 

Canes. — Orange, crabwood, princewood, torch- 
wood, palmetto, royal palm. 

Cooj^erage. — Bitter-nut hickory, white elm, mul- 
berry, dogwood, sassafras, box- elder, cypress, juni- 



190 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

per, and various oaks, namely, the white, post, 
chestnut, scarlet, black, and red. 

Engravers^ Blocks. — Dogwood. 

Fencing. — For posts or rails the following trees 
are preferred : Black cypress, red cedar, juniper, 
yellow pine, post-oak, chestnut- oak, white oak, 
overcup oak, willow, hornbeam, cbestnut, catalpa, 
mulberry, honey-locust, sassafras, slippery elm, 
hackberry. 

Floats. — Tupelo. 

Flooring. — Probably no wood is equal for this 
purpose to the long-leaved yellow pine. Where 
this is not obtainable, white elm, sugar-maple, etc., 
may be used. 

Fuel. — Most of the pines, oaks, and hickories 
afford excellent fuel ; also beech, sugar- maple, mag- 
nolia, black titi, etc. In Southern Florida the 
woods most used for fuel are the butt on- wood, 
Jamaica dogwood, crab wood, and torch wood. 

Gun-Stocks. — Red maple, black walnut. 

Interior Finish. — The kinds of wood best 
adapted to inside ornamentation are curly pine, red 
bay, white and green ash, sugar-maple, cherry, box- 
elder, black walnut, white oak, juniper, magnolia, 
and poplar. 

Levers. — Hornbeam, iron wood. 



PRODUCTIONS. 191 

Medicinal Barhs. — These are afforded by the 
cherry, dogwood, white bay, willow, sassafras, Geor- 
gia bark, prickly ash, poplar, slippery elm, white 
oak, and by a number of the subtropical trees. 

Oars. — White and green ash. 

Ox-Yokes. — ^^Black-gum, sassafras, black birch, 
sycamore, bitter-nut hickory. 

Paijer-Fulp. — Cotton^vood, linn, box-elder. 

Pencils. — Red cedar. 

Piles. — Palmetto, yellow and pitch pine, black- 
gnm, mangrove. 

RailvKtij Ties. — Black cypress, juniper, yellow 
pine, chestnut, post-oak, white oak, slippery elm, 
mulberry, catalpa. 

Boilers and Bearings of Machinery. — Black- 
gum, dogwood, sourwood. 

Saddle-Trees . — White elm, sugar-maple. 

Shingles. — Cypress ranks the best, jumper sec- 
ond, and yellow pine is largely used. 

Ship and Boat Building. — White, overcup, and 
live oak, yellow pine, cypress, juniper, poplar, mul- 
berry, white elm, sugar-maple. Of South Florida 
woods: Jamaica dogwood, mahogany, mastic, wild 
tamarind, and inkwood, are favorite kinds. 

Shoe-Lasts. — Sugar-maple, persimmon, beech. 

Shuttles. — Persimmon. 



192 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY, 

Tanning Barh. — The mangrove affords most 
tamiin, but the kinds most used are the black and 
red oaks, and the tan or loblolly bay. 

Tobacco-Boxes. — Sycamore. 

Tool-Handles and Plane-Stocks. — Hornbeam 
and ironwood, red and pig-nut hickory, beech, per- 
simmon, sour wood, sloe, sparkleberry. 

Wagons and Carriages. — White and green ash, 
red and pig-nut hickory, poplar, and linn ; white, 
post, and overcup oak. 

Wheel-Stock. — White elm, slippery elm, and 
oaks of various kinds ; hubs being made of red elm, 
black-gum, dogwood, and honey-locust. 

Wooden Shoes. — Tupelo, black birch. 

Woodenware. — Linn, poplar, white bay, juniper, 
black birch, tupelo, tupelo-gum, box-elder, red 
maple. 

Rice. — Both varieties — ^lowland and upland — are 
grown in various parts of the State, but mainly for 
home use. Seventy bushels to the acre is a good 
crop, but a hundred bushels has been reported ; 
while twenty-five content some of the thinner-soil 
cultivators. The Okeechobee country yields very 
fine crops when conditions are favorable. Some 
account of the crops in the newly drained region 
will be found in the pages on Drainage. The 



PRODUCTIONS. 193 

U. S. Census of 1880 gives Florida credit for rais- 
ing 1,291,677 pounds of rice. Professor Curtiss, 
one of the best informed men in the State, writes : 
" We take it that rice production in Florida may be 
regarded as a promising but undeveloped industry, 
and therefore a latent source of wealth. So far as 
we know, there is nothing needful to bring it into 
favor and render it a staple crop in every county, 
except facilities for ^milling' it, so that it may, 
without too much expense, be placed on the market 
in prime condition." To this he adds : " The fact 
that Florida has no rank in the market as a rice-pro- 
ducing State signifies nothing. Seven years ago 
Louisiana did not produce for export a bushel of 
rice. Seven years ago the first rice-mill was built 
in that State. Yet the statistics show that Louisi- 
ana's rice-crop for the season of 1886-'87 was one 
half greater than the combined rice crop of South 
Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. May it not 
be said of Florida seven years hence that her rice- 
crop exceeds that of all the other States ? That un- 
doubtedly is among the possibilities." 

Sugar. — Sugar-cane grows well in all parts of the 

State, especially in the south ; the farther south the 

better. Sixty tons of it has been grown to the 

acre. On the Caloosahatchee River a farm of fifty 

13 



194 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

acres has grown cane eight years, the cane rattoon- 
ing every year, and has netted $300 an acre for sev- 
eral years. Fan* lands will produce from 1,500 to 
2,000 pounds of sugar a year ; and rich lands, thor- 
oughly fertilized, will yield from 2,000 to 4,000 
pounds. The draining of the Okeechobee region 
promises to furnish a large addition to the sugar- 
lands of the State. 

Upon the matter of rattooning, Mr. Barbour, in 
his " Florida for Tourists, Invalids, and Settlers," 
says, " I am informed that on the lands of Indian 
River has been raised the nineteenth crop of cane 
from the same planting, and on the shore of Lake 
Worth cane is now growing which has not been 
replanted since the early Indian wars." This readi- 
ness to rattoon makes the crop far less expensive, so 
long as good returns continue. 

Grains. — Florida can hardly be considered a 
grain country, although some of the grains do 
very well there ; but, generally, in such places 
other crops do phenomenally well, so that there 
is no special object in developing the grain in- 
dustries. 

Grain does better in Northern Florida than it 
does in the extreme south. Corn does excellently 
well in the former region. The yield upon poor 



PRODUCTIONS. 195 

land, with "cracker" cultivation^ is from ten bushels 
up to twenty perhaps ; but intelhgent and judicious 
cultivation can always make good yields. Governor 
Drew is reported to have raised 130 bushels of corn 
on common pine-land in 1878. 

Wheat, oats, and rye are grown in Northern 
Florida very much as they are in the Southern 
States generally. Very little is sown. Barley is 
seldom seen. 

Cattle. — The stock business is carried on mostly 
in the south — Semi-tropical and Subtropical Flor- 
ida — below 29° ; but cattle are raised and do well 
all over the State, Brevard County taking the lead 
both in number and quality of stock. 

The aggregate number of cattle is put by Mr, 
P. O. Knight, of Lee County, at 250,000, and the 
total value at $1,250,000. Mr. J. Selwin Tait, of 
St. Augustine, author of " The Cattle-Fields of the 
Far West," in a paper recently published, puts the 
cattle of Florida, exclusive of sheep, at 613,515 
head, and their value approximately at $6,000,000. 
The annual sales he reckons at 147,000 head, real- 
izing, at $11, over $2,000,000 a year. He thinks 
that Florida has, in this cattle business, ready at her 
hands, the means of quadrupling her revenue, and 
he points out the ways and means. The larger 



196 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

herds — tlie subjects of tlie cattle-kings — range in 
number from 10,000 to 15,000 cattle. 

In IN'ortliern Florida finer breeds of cattle — Dur- 
ham, Devon, Ayrshire, Jersey, and Alderney — have 
been liberally introduced, within the last ten years 
especially ; and great improvement in the quality of 
the cattle generally has been the gratifying result. 
In the lower counties, however, where the greater 
herds are to be foiind, very httle has been done thus 
far to improve the breeds. 

Sheep. — l^orthern Florida is the best part of the 
State for sheep. The pasturage suits them better, 
and the burs and spurs are not so likely to damage 
the fleece as in the lower and pinier regions. But 
burs and spurs must not be neglected anywhere. 
The industry of sheep-raising in Florida is old but 
not extensive. Bermuda grass is one of the best for 
sheep; and, when properly confined within good 
pasture-limits, they do anywhere very well ; but 
the extent of the business and the size of the flocks 
are necessarily quite limited. A flock of 300 is 
large. 

Goats. — Experiments with goats have not been 
very extensive, but the outlook for them seems to 
be quite as good as that for sheep, if not better. 
Angoras, Cashmeres, and finer-fleeced goats gener- 



PRODUCTION'S. 197 

ally might succeed better than the common; but 
the conditions of fine success would necessarily be 
very much the same as for sheep. 

Colonel Dennett, of Louisiana, says : '' Goats 
thrive well in the pine-lands of the South, and 
more attention should be paid to raising them in 
these States. Goats are cleaner and more healthy 
animals than sheep ; they are more sagacious, have 
more self-protection in them, and live and thrive on 
browse all winter. Sheep have so many infirmi- 
ties, and need so much nursing and attention, and 
peculiar kinds of ranges, and convenient watering- 
places and good water, and so much care and pro- 
tection, that few can spare the time and labor needed 
to preserve the flock and make it prosperous. Dogs, 
hogs, buzzards, eagles, all prey upon sheep and 
lambs, and they are liable to nasal catarrh, scab, foot 
and liver rot, diarrhoea, and numerous other dis- 
eases and frailties from which goats are almost en- 
tirely free. Considering the healthfulness of goats, 
and the loathsome diseases that prey upon sheep, 
we would always prefer fat kid to lamb or mutton." 

The Angora has been raised successfully in the 
State of Coahuila, Mexico, which is in the same 
latitude as Florida, 24° to 30°. Mr. W. Broderick 
Cloete, of that State, has the largest and, consid- 



198 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

ering its size, the finest Angora flock in JS^ortb 
America. He has just made, so the '' Texas Stock- 
man " states, a large shipment of mohair to Eng- 
land. He has recently added 9,000 Angoras to his 
flock, bj purchase from a herdman in Texas. If 
the Angora succeeds so well in Texas and Coahuila, 
there seems to be no reason to fear failure in 
Florida. 

Other Stock. — The native boa:, bke the native 
cow and pony, seems to be rather run out. All 
these are better in JSTorthern Florida than in the 
extreme south. With properly improved breeds, 
hog-raising in Northern Florida may be as success- 
ful as anywhere in the United States ; but the gen- 
uine native, razor-back hog of Florida, wherever 
he may be found, can not be fairly ranked a first- 
rate animal as a porker. All these runts— hogs, 
horses, cows — seem to be the old Spanish importa- 
tions, neglected and left to run wild for two hun- 
dred years, and so run down. But improved kinds 
of all these are being introduced ; and all will do 
well, especially in E^orthern Florida. 

Poultry. — All kinds of poultry do well in all 
parts of Florida, and there is almost everywhere a 
good local market for both poultry and eggs. The 
climate is all that could be desired, and especially 



PRiWUCTIONS. 199 

fine for the Asiatic and Italian breeds — Brahmas, 
CocMns, Leghorns — but the Plymouth Eocks do 
equally well. The natural enemies of the chicken 
in South Florida are the wild cat, opossum, and 
skunk; while in l^orth Florida it is the colored 
biped mainly, with the quadruped prowlers as in- 
cidentals occasionally, that makes poultry - raising 
risky. 

Good local prices for poultry and eggs are well 
sustained in all parts of the State. In the subtrop- 
ics, eggs sell at twenty-five cents a dozen the year 
round. A settler on Lake Worth — latitude 26° 40' 
— reports, the present season, 961 eggs from four- 
teen hens in three months ; an average of twenty- 
three eggs a month to the hen. And many if not 
most parts of the State, with equal management, 
could probably do as well. 

Turkeys, geese, and ducks thrive everywhere, 
but the abundance of wild turkeys and ducks ren- 
ders the raising of domesticated birds unnecessary. 
The man that can shoot a brace of ducks any hour 
in the day need not bother with raising them, un- 
less he prefers the domestic varieties. 

Gardening. — This is fast becoming a leading in- 
dustry in all parts of the State ; and, as the State is 
settling up and developing southward, new products 



200 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-LAY. 

and new conditions are lending their attractions 
c0ntimially. Gardening or truck-farming is excep- 
tionally attractive in the subtropical counties, on 
account of the important fact that most vegetables — 
tomatoes, celery, cucumbers, egg-plant, potatoes, 
and pretty much all the market spring vegetables in 
demand in the E'orth — can be matured in that cli- 
mate from two to four weeks ahead of even the cen- 
tral and middle parts of the State. As illustrative 
of the wonderful scope of that subtropical region, 
the following hst of vegetables and fruits actually 
ripened and used on Lake "Worth, in Dade County — 
latitude 26° 40' — during the month of December, 
1886, is given. It was prepared by a resident of 
the place at the time, and is as follows : 

VegetaUes. — Beets, cabbages, cassava, celery, 
cucumbers, egg-plant, lettuce, onions, parsley, pota- 
toes, pumpkins, radishes, snap beans, squashes, sweet 
potatoes, tanyahs, tomatoes, turnips, and water- 
melons. 

Fruits. — Bananas, citrons, cocoanuts, figs, gua~ 
vas, lemons, limes, oranges, papaws, plantains, pine- 
apples, sapodillas, and sugar-apples. 

This list does not give the scope of vegetable 
and fruit productions, but what were actually on 
hand during the midwinter month of the year of 



PRODUCTION'S. 201 

tlie great freeze. There is nothing invidious in 
presenting this special list of one region, for the 
whole State teems with vegetables and fruits all 
the year round, varying with the soils, cultures, ele- 
vations, and latitudes ; but everyw^here and always 
a rich and royal abundance. Its own special prod- 
uct is shipped from every locality in the State ; 
and in ten years from to-day these shipments will 
doubtless be in the aggregate ^yq times as great as 
they are now. 

Mr. W. D. Chipley, of Pensacola, in his " Facts 
about Florida," gives the following facts in regard 
to the yields in J^orthern Florida : " A man in 
Tallahassee had prepared his acre of land, and 
planted it in Irish potatoes in January, 1884. In 
April he planted corn between the rows of potatoes 
and dug the potatoes in May, which gave the last 
dressing to the corn. In July he planted between 
the corn-rows sweet potatoes, which he harvested in 
l^ovember, and he counted up his yield as follows : 
96 barrels of Irish potatoes, worth $la barrel, $384 ; 
40 bushels of corn, worth, with the corn-shucks for 
fodder, $40 ; and 300 bushels of sweet potatoes, 
worth $150 ; a total of $574 from a single acre of 
ordinary farm-crops. Had the acre been set with 
pears, peaches, figs, olives, or Japanese persimmons, 



202 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

with less labor and less outlay for manures, lie miglit 
have realized even greater profits ; and in garden 
products still more would have been realized." 
These facts do not need comment. 

An extensive truck-farmer of Florida may be 
quoted as giving the following estimates of what as 
an average crop can be grown on an acre : 

Tomatoes, 200 bushels ; cucumbers, 200 bush- 
els ; snap beans, 100 bushels ; Irish potatoes, 50 to 
Y5 bushels ; green peas, 75 to 100 bushels ; cab- 
bages, 50 to 150 barrels; melons, 500 to 1,000; 
strawberries, 2,000 to 4,000 quarts. 

A gardener's calendar of what to plant and 
what to gather each month in the year would give 
a fine exhibit of Florida's horticultural resources ; 
but — ^it would be too long for these pages. 

Besides the vegetables generally produced in 
the Southern States, there are some whose area is 
limited. Among these may be mentioned the tan- 
yah, cassava, and comptie. The tanyah is the Co- 
looasia esculenta, according to Professor Whitner, 
and the Calladium esoulentum^ according to others, 
and is much eaten in the Sandwich Islands. It is 
remotely as to its roots like the sweet potato, with 
more starch and less sugar. Its large and handsome 
leaves are familiar to most readers. It grows best 



PRODUCTIONS. 203 

in moist rich lands almost without cultivation. Cas- 
sava has been a good deal written about, and is far 
better known. It will yield more tubers to the acre 
than any other of the edible-root family. One 
grower reports 56,000 pounds, or a thousand bush- 
els, to the acre ; and others report as high as 80,000 
pounds. Analysis shows the cassava to be exceed- 
ingly rich in merchantable and nutritive elements, 
yielding about 30 per cent of glucose or sirup, 40 
per cent of starch, and 10 per cent of the residuum, 
tapioca. It is very valuable as stock and poultry 
food, and properly prepared is an excellent article 
for the table. It is easily propagated, from the 
stalk and branches cut into pieces ; and will grow in 
any soil, but yields most in the best soils. Comptie 
grows wild in the subtropics. In Dade County the 
people for many years have been manufacturing 
from it starch and a species of arrow-root, for the 
Key West and local markets, and for home use. 

Opium. — The making of opium from the poppy 
has been tried with fair measure of success. One 
individual reports fifty pounds made by him at one 
time ; and at City Point on Indian River — about 
latitude 28° 22^ — intelligent experiments have been 
made through several years ; and, under the stimu- 
lus of a new process, put forward by Mr. W. W. 



20i THE FLORID A. OF TO-DAY. 

Winthrop, of extracting the morpliia directly from 
the poppy instead of the old process of extracting 
it from the gum-opium, it is likely that a new and 
practical impetus will be given to poppy-growing. 
Mr. "Winthrop says of his process : " I extract the 
morphia, so to speak, from the plant direct, without 
making it into gum-opium first. In other words, I 
extract the morphia from the meconate state in 
which it is held. This will be an immense saving, 
but it will require considerable capital to build up a 
factory, etc., to manufacture morphia in quantities. 
The chemists extract the morphia from the gum, 
and it is as morphine that most of it is used." The 
same writer thinks that $700 an acre is not a large 
estimate for poppy-growing. The time to plant in 
that latitude is March and April. Farther south 
this time would be a little earlier, and farther north 
a little later. 

Honey. — The bee works in every latitude, and 
has ample materials everywhere. In far south cli- 
mates the honey-bee, like the human bee, having all 
the year before him in which to work, works more 
leisurely ; and his stores have to be plundered ju- 
diciously in order to encourage his perseverance in 
storing liberally. Little has been done at bee-rais- 
ing in Florida beyond supplying home needs of 



PRODUCTIONS. 205 

honey, but the indastry could be extended vastly, if 
there should be occasion ; but, where there are so 
many attractive and remunerative directions of 
labor, it is not to be expected that everything can 
be pushed forward at the same time. 

Out of the Waters. — The waters yield seven mer- 
chantable products — fish, oysters, turtles, sponges, 
shells, corals, and alligator spoils. 

A writer in Key West states that the fish busi- 
ness in South Florida amounts to $800,000 a year ; 
and even Cuba is supplied with fish from these 
waters. From the everywhere-present and always 
excellent sea-mullet to that prince of fish the pom- 
pano, all the edible fishes are fine and sell well. 
There are fisheries all along the 1,200 miles of 
shore, and Northern Florida exports fish in large 
quantities. Appalachicola, Pensacola, and Cedar 
Keys, all ship large quantities of fish. The sport 
of fishing is discussed on other pages. 

Oysters abound in most parts of tlie State. 
Scores of boats engaged in this fishery business cen- 
ter at Key "West ; and all the way up the Gulf coast 
and the whole extent of the Atlantic coast, from 
Fernandina southward at least to the 2Tth degree of 
latitude, oysters planted by ]^ature abound. Many 
private plants are now being made, especially on the 



206 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

South Atlantic and GiiK coasts, notably in the 
Cedar Keys region. Canning has been begun, with 
considerable capital employed. 

Turtles. — Four or ii^e kinds of turtle are very 
plentiful, especially on the south Atlantic and 
south Gulf coasts. Of these, the green turtle — 
Chelonia mydas — is perhaps the most prized ; but 
there are also loggerheads, hawkbills, and trunk- 
backs. They weigh from a few pounds up, it is 
claimed, to 1,200 pounds each. The turtling busi- 
ness is varied. The turtles are captured mainly 
with nets, but are also caught while on land, and 
trapped in various ways. Turtle-turning is a sport 
for the boys as well as profit-pursuit. The turtle- 
boats spend frequently two months on the turtling- 
grounds, and the business, it is said, is worth some 
$400,000 ; but such estimates are vague approxima- 
tions merely. 

Turtle-eggs^ of which the turtles lay from 100 
to 300 in each nest, are also valuable as food, and 
in their season make an appreciable item in the 
provisioning of the far south pioneer settlers. In 
Key West the beef and the turtle markets stand 
side by side, and many prefer the latter as a 
regular meat-suppl3^ Turtles are shipped alive 
to the I^orthern markets from Key West, Lake 



PRODUCTIONS. 207 

Worth, Biscayne, and several points on the GnK 
coast. 

A species of tortoise or terrapin, that bnrrows in 
the sandy soil, and popularly known in this State as 
the gopher, is commonly eaten ; and considerable 
shipments in a retail way are made from the Gulf 
coast to the Key West markets. Gopher calij^asTi 
is a popular dish in some neighborhoods. 

It is a somewhat singular philological fact that 
the animal here called gopher is known in the 
West as the salamander; while the burrowing rat 
that in the West is called gopher is here known as 
the salamander. The derivation of the word gopher , 
from the French gaufre (honey-comb), doubtless led 
to the confounding. 

Sponges are gathered in several parts of the 
State, especially in the far south regions. Appala- 
chicola, Rio Carabelle, St. Mark's, and Cedar Keys, 
do a good deal in that way. Key West claims to 
export 600,000 pounds a year, the bulk of it going 
to Paris. There are a hundred and fifty sponging- 
boats that center at Key West. The sponge-trade 
of the State is stated by some tropical writers as 
fully $1,000,000 a year, but this is probably some- 
what over the mark. The sponges are taken in 
waters from five to twenty feet deep. They are 



208 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

dislodged from tlieir beds with hooks, taken ashore, 
and lodged until life is extinct ; then beaten, cleaned, 
and dried — altogether a most unsavory work. Some 
spongers make as much as $1,000 in a month of 
the sponge season. Manj of the fine and expensive 
Mediterranean sponges sold in our Northern mar- 
kets are gathered in Florida, shipped to Paris, re- 
touched, and exported thence to America — to dem- 
onstrate the superiority of European wares ! 

Shells of divers kinds and corals are gathered in 
many places ; the farther south, the richer and more 
numerous they are. Groing southward, these prod- 
ucts of the sea increase in color, size, and value. 

Alligators from their amphibious domain con- 
tribute teeth and hides, and these have been much 
sought of late years. The shooting of alligators 
ceased a few years ago to be a sport worthy a re- 
spectable sportsman, and is now a legitimate busi- 
ness pursuit, but not very extensively pursued, be- 
cause not easy nor very profitable. 



XI. 

SPORTIXG. 

Fishing. — Writers on sporting, whether in the 
field of fin, fur, or feather, agree almost unani- 
mously in pronouncing Florida a paradise for sports- 
men ; although, as between land-sports and fishing, 
the latter is unquestionably the finer. One of the 
ablest and best-informed writers of to-dav, Mr. S. C. 
Clarke, of Marietta, Georgia, widely known as an 
angling naturalist, holds that " the coasts of the 
Peninsula of Florida afford a greater variety of spe- 
cies of fish, and probably a greater variety of valu- 
able food-fishes, than can be found in any one region 
in the IJnited States." Dr. Charles J. Kenworthy, 
of Jacksonville, the ^'Al Fresco^'' of the sporting 
journals, a leading authority in sporting matters 
in Florida, bears ample testimony to the supreme 
excellence of that State's piscatorial advantages. 
Her 1,200 miles of salt-water coast, added to her 
fresh-water bodies — lakes, rivers, ponds, springs, 
havens, and bayous — give both variety and diversity 
14 



210 TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

of field, and supply a variety and diversity of fishes 
altogether exceptional. Our knights of the rod find 
here some migratory fishes that are common on the 
Northern coasts, such as the striped bass, sea-bass, 
blue-fish, sheepshead, and weak-fish ; others that do 
not usually range farther north than Delaware, such 
as the black and the red drum ; others that are local 
in their habits and range, such as the groupers and 
snappers ; others again of a more tropical character, 
that appear on the Florida coast only in warm 
weather, and whose home is the more tropical lati- 
tudes, as the tarpum, cavalli, and the lady-fish. All 
along the ocean and Gulf coasts, where the fresh- 
water lakes are near the sea, there are to be found 
within a mile or two both salt and fresh waters, 
with their separate and distinct families of fishes. 
In other places, notably at Lake Worth, in Dade 
County, there are three classes of waters — the ocean 
which is salt, the lake which is semi-salt, and the 
lakes inland which are fresh — all within less than 
three miles ; thus affording three classes of fish. 
'^ Nowhere," says Mr. Clarke, " in our broad coun- 
try can the angler find greater variety of game or 
more or better sport than on the coasts of Florida. 
In an experience of more than fifty years as an an- 
gler, reaching from Canada to Florida and from 



SPORTING. 211 

Massachusetts to Colorado, the writer has found no 
region where fish were so abundant as on this [the 
East Florida] coast." 

An exhaustive list of the fishes of this State 
would cover the whole scope of Southern waters, 
both temperate and tropical, and both salt and fresh. 
Dr. Henshall, in his racy book on Florida, gives a 
list of one hnndred and twenty species found by 
him in these waters. Of course, the fish vary with 
the latitudes, the southern waters having more kinds 
and larger fishes, and the sportsman that wants the 
finest sport in this line will go to the far south, 
either Gulf or Atlantic side. 

The most attractive fishes, taking the common 
ground of both fun and food, seem to be the fol- 
lowing : 

T\iQ 2)ompaRO is generally known by that name, 
although the early French settlers in South Caro- 
lina called it the crevalle. It is the most valued 
food-fish of the Southern waters, and in the JN^ew 
Orleans markets it ranks first. It is a bottom-fish, 
and the angler that expects to hook it must be alert. 
Mr. Joseph B. White, of New York, writing from 
Lake Worth Inlet, in Dade County, reports, during 
the present year, his capture of a pompano weigh- 
ing twenty-one pounds. He used a bass-hook with 



212 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

concli bait. This is probably the largest pompano 
ever caught in Florida waters. The usual average 
weight is perhaps less than half that. 

The sheejpshead ranks close to the pompano as a 
sport-fish, and is somewhat more easily and more 
frequently caught. 

The channel hass is called red drum in Yir- 
ginia, spotted bass in South Carolina, and red- 
fish in ]New Orleans. It is considered one of 
the best game-fish in these waters, a strong and 
persistent fighter, and sometimes weighs forty 
pounds, and on the line feels as if it weighed 
two hundred. 

The salt water trout or spotted trout — the 
Cynoscion maculatum of the books — is easily 
caught with hook, weighs from three to fifteen 
pounds, and is an excellent food-fish. 

The red gro%i])er is a bottom-fish, of fine qual- 
ity, strong, wary, and is best caught with mullet- 
bait ; and when hooked generally makes for his 
covert under the roots and rocks, whence only the 
smaller sizes — say five-pounders — can be hauled by 
ordinary man- power. 

The cavalli frequently weighs ten to twelve 
pounds. It is finer as a game-fish than as food, 
and will take almost any bait, but will fight to the 



SPORTING. 213 

death before it will leave the water, and dies as 
soon as landed. 

The mangrove snapper is a secretive and shy fish, 
like the grouper, and is caught in the same manner. 

The Spanish mackerel in its season is a prince 
among fish ; and many consider it superior to the 
Pompano, and it is much less frequently caught. 

The lady-fish^ or skip-jack as it is sometimes 
called, is the most agile and acrobatic of all these 
Southern fishes ; and, while almost useless for the 
table, gives her captor sport galore. 

The harracuda — the Sphyrcuna harracuda or 
jncuda — is a strong fish, of good quality, and a 
great favorite with anglers. The smaller sizes usu- 
ally caught are excellent for food, but the large 
ones are unmanageable on the line and rather 
coarse sometimes. 

The tarpum or tarpon is a herring-shaped fish, 
often five or six feet long, of giant strength, and 
generally takes the tackle with him into the ocean. 
It weighs from a hundred pounds up to several 
hundred, and is too coarse ordinarily for food, but 
always attractive to adventurous anglers. The Jew- 
fish also is a large fish ; so also are the sharks / 
albeit anglers do not usually care to cultivate or to 
tackle either of them. 



214: THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

The mullet swarms in most Florida waters, and 
can be caught best with cast-net or seine, for it re- 
fuses all kinds of bait. Fishermen frequently catch 
the mullet with, cast-net or dip-net, and use it as cut 
bait. The mullet is fair food, but the netting for 
them of course injures the fishing at that place. 
The silver or white mullet is the one that abounds 
in Florida. 

The Uue-fish is first-class game, and also ex- 
cellent food. 

The drum is a rather coarse fish, and in the 
extreme south is not commonly eaten, although 
about St. Augustine its quality is better. The 
largest sizes weigh as much as forty pounds, and 
can pull like a horse. The red drum^ called in 
East Florida the channel bass, is perhaps the Sglce- 
nojys ocellata of Gill. It is an omnivorous fish, 
bold, strong, and intelligent, weighing sometimes 
fifty pounds ; but this size is not often pulled in 
wdth an angle line. The habits and fighting meth- 
ods of the drums are similar to those of the sheeps- 
head, and it takes both skill and strength to land 
either quickly. 

A fine fish of the flounder or the sole family 
has been caught on the Atlantic shore of the sub- 
tropics, but it is by no means common. 



SPORTING, 215 

Bream is in miicli favor, and is very abundant. 

Besides these tliere are scores of fishes more or 
less common ; as the moon-fish and the sun-fish, 
the pike, the bonito, red-fish and whiting, snapper 
and snool^, gag and gar, sucker, eel, grunt and por- 
gee, the dainty needle-fish, the wonderful flying- 
fish, the formidable sword-fish, saw-fish, and sharks, 
the hateful rays and stingarees, cat fish, and hog- 
fish, angel-fish and devil-fish, anchovy, menhaden, 
sailor's choice, and minnows. 

A list of the fishing-grounds of Florida would 
embrace almost every place situated on water ; and, 
in view of the extent of coast, number of lakes, and 
multitude of islands and keys, it is evident that the 
number of such places is rather large. Dr. Ken- 
worthy undertook several years ago to make a list ; 
and he na'.ned over thirty places, scattered from 
Fernandina round to Pensacola, and all through the 
numerous lake regions and meandering rivers. The 
fact is that, while some places are better situated 
for fishing than others, there is hardly anywhere 
that good fishing can not be had. Other things be- 
ing equal, the best grounds can not be expected 
near cities and large towns, where steamers and 
various sailing-craft frequent and scare away the 
finny game ; nor in waters wliere the cast-net, the 



216 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY, 

dip-net, the gill-net, and the seine are industriously 
plied. Business interferes with pleasure, liock 
Ledge, St. Lucie, Lake Worth, Biscajne Bay, Cape 
Romano, Charlotte Harbor, Tain pa Bay, Cedar 
Keys, and so on — every port, bay, river, lake, and 
bayou, from the St. Mary's to the Perdido — are 
all, with the if above named, fine fishing-grounds ; 
and each several one (some enthusiastic dweller 
there will confidently assure you) is the fisher- 
man's paradise — whatever that is. But it is true 
that wherever the sportsman may please to go, at 
the proper time for fishing there — be it ocean, gulf, 
bay, bayon, channel, sound, river, lake, or spring — 
there he will find interesting sport. He may have 
angle, net, seine, gig, or barb — in boat or from the 
shore— by day or with torchlight — whether he is 
fishing for fun or for fish — and he will find on this 
continent no better theatre for his piscatorial feats 
than these Florida waters. 

With regard to tackle. Dr. Ken worthy says that 
the game-fish of Florida are uneducated, and make 
no distinction bstween a mist-colored leader and a 
clothes line. The great desideratum for Florida 
fishing is strength of tackle — stout lines and large 
hooks. A heavy bass-rod is all-important; if fly- 
fishing is indulged in, the rod should be not less 



SPORTING. 217 

than eight ounces. As the fish are not particular, 
expensive flies need not be used. For hand-line 
fishing, resident experts use cable-laid cotton and 
braided cotton lines. 

Hunting. — Game is plentiful in most parts of 
Florida, though less so than fish, and both are 
more abundant in the sparselj-settled south than in 
the older regions farther north. 

The best game seems to be deer, duck, turkey, 
bear, panther, wild cat — in that order — and lastly 
small game. In this class may be named the hare 
or rabbit, opossum, raccoon, squirrel, quail, and the 
host of birds. 

The deer abounds especially in the far south ; 
and experienced sportsmen have written up several 
localities — St. Lucie and Eoek Ledge on Indian 
Kiver, Lake Worth, the Caloosahatchee Yalley, 
Ivissimmee, Clear Water Harbor, and so on. The 
hunting is generally without dogs ; and the hunter 
or party of hunters, having reconnoitred the field, 
moves cautiously through the woods, standing at 
selected points, and thus finds the animal without 
alarming it. This is the Indian method; and the 
Indians are always successful hunters. The deer 
has certain hours to feed, to drink, and to take 
salt ; and is easily found by those that study these 



218 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 




SPORTING. 219 

hours carefully. The moon affords favorable light 
at certain periods, and showers direct the game 
to certain pastures. The hunter that heeds these 
little indicia, apparently trifling though they seem, 
need rarely return home gamelqss anywhere in the 
game region. But the visiting sportsman will fre 
quently bring with him his own special code of 
field-ethics, and is likely at the outset to despise 
the simpler and more primitive tactics of the resi- 
dent hunter. But, whatever be the ethics or the 
tactics, the main point and purpose of hunting will 
be the same — abundance of game. 

Duck-shooting is a science — at least an art — of 
the expert that calls for no special discussion. In 
their seasons these birds abound in countless hosts 
in certain localities, and these localities are almost 
everywhere that w^ater and shore present good con- 
ditions. Dr. Hen shall found seventeen species of 
ducks in Florida. His list embraces the canvas- 
back, mallard, three teals — the black, the w^ood, and 
the pintail. 

Turkeys exist generally with the deer ; and, 
w^hile they are scarcer than deer, they afford excel- 
lent sport to those fond of that kind. The common 
wdld turkey — Meleagris gallojpavo A7nerica?ia—is 
the only species reported by hunter-naturalists. 



220 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

Bears are getting scarce, except in the deep re- 
cesses of the southern unsettled country, and even 
there bear-hnnting is comparatively rare of late 
years. 

Panthers and wild cats are hardly legitimate ob- 
jects of sport-hunting. They are generally hunted 
by the residents in order to rid the country of dep- 
redators, and directly in the interests of poultry- 
yards and pig-pens. But the hunter for other 
game sometimes encounters one of these pronounced 
characters, and the amount of fight and run — gen- 
erally the run precedes the fight — is ample to at- 
tract considerable attention. 

In addition to the above-named, the fur game — 
including pests and prowlers — of Florida embraces 
the following : Lynx, wolf, fox, mink, skunk, otter, 
polecat, salamander, rat, mouse, and mole. In Al- 
len's " Mammals and Winter Birds of East Florida " 
much valuable and interesting information in this 
direction may be found ; also in Henshall's " Camp- 
ing and Cruising in Florida." 

The feathered tribe, besides the bird game above 
mentioned, is very numerous, fine -plumed, and 
sweet-voiced. There are the blue-bird, the black- 
bird, and the cardinal-bird ; the thrush, bobolink, 
cat bird, oriole, and the polyglot mocking-bird ; the 



SPORTING. 221 

titmouse, wren, and humming-bird; the sparrow, 
lark, snipe, do7e, kingfisher, and jaj ; the vireo, 
shrike, cherwink, grackle, woodpecker, w^oodcock, 
and plover ; the crow, eight species of hawk, owl, 
king-buzzard, and vulture ; the paroquet, willet, 
sandpiper, godwit, stilt, marsh-hen, and rail ; a va- 
riety of cranes, eight species of herons, the flamingo, 
bittern, gallinule, gannet, curlew, and ibis ; the limp- 
kin, pelican, cormorant, and water-turkej ; the gull, 
tern, egret, skimmer, and the gnat-catcher ; the 
warbler, killdeer, whip-poor-will, and chuck-wilFs- 
widow. These are permanent residents ; and win- 
ter brings some seventy-four other tourist birds. 

Without being game in the ordinary sense of 
that word, the alligator, which abounds in all the 
available fresh- water streams and lakes in the State, 
is extensively hunted, and that too for mere sport, 
as well as for hides, teeth, etc. That is, in addition 
to being an industrial pursuit, alligator-killing is a 
sport, and pursued by a certain class of tourists for 
the mere fun of murdering the creatures. 

The same is true, to a very limited extent, how- 
ever, also of the manatee. This monster amphibian 
is strictly subtropical. It is found, on the Atlantic 
side, as high up as the St. Lucie Eiver, near lat- 
itude 27°. The younger ones have flesh that is 



222 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

tender and wholesome, and these calves are said to 
be much sought by both Indians and whites. The 
manatee is sluggish and clumsy, sometimes twelve 
or fifteen feet in length, and ten or twelve feet in 
girth ; and when well grown will weigh a ton. One 
writer gives the maximum weight as 3,000 pounds. 
It has two hand-like flippers, small eyes, and a head 
very remotely like a cow's. It is pachydermatous, 
of dark-brownish color, and has sparse hair ; is a 
harmless and docile beast, and is usually caught, as 
turtles are, with a strong rope seine. It is also shot 
or harpooned. 

The grampus is much rarer than the manatee. 
This monster has been captured, or killed, and 
landed on the Gulf shore, in Hillsborough County, 
and perhaps in other places. 



XII. 

PESTS. 

Insects. — Mncli exaggerated nonsense has been 
written about the insects of Florida. It is tme that 
the earth, the waters, and the air there teem with 
life, as they do in all southern climates. But it is 
also true that the insects are not aggressive in pro- 
portion to their number. Human life is naturally 
shaped so as to offset the natural surroundings ; and 
no civilized man need succumb to so trifling an 
enemy. The same means that suffice to keep off 
mosquitoes in ^N^ew Jersey will keep them off in 
Florida. The mosquito season is longer in the 
South, but these insects can be kept at bay more 
easily in the South for the reason that much greater 
attention is paid to appliances for that purpose. 
Houses are constructed so as to exclude them ; and, 
with windows and doors properly wire-netted or 
closed with gauze of suitable texture, and beds 
properly protected with netting, there need be no 
great annoyance from mosquitoes. When they get 



224 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

foothold in a room, a spoonful of insect-powder — 
jpyrethrum, of several varieties — ^burned will expel 
or kill them. It can be grown there. Smudge-fires 
to windward will always banish the mosquitoes. 

Fleas abound in some places, mostly where hogs 
and dogs live about the place ; but these can be 
readily kept away with pennyroyal and several other 
plants, easily cultivated there. 

Gnats, flies, and that class of pests, seem to be 
about the same as elsewhere. Where there are little 
pests, there are usually larger enemies to them to 
keep them down. A large insect known as the mos- 
quito-hawk destroys countless thousands of gnats, as 
do also the spiders, birds, and lizards. 

The red-bug annoys those that hunt him up in 
the jungles and tangles of weed and undergrowth ; 
but nobody need hunt up such pests. 

The cockroach about the house is an annoy- 
ance, but borax or some similar drug — insect-pow- 
der, for example — will drive all roaches away. The 
same is true of ants. 

Sand-flies are very annoying in places, but no- 
where constantly. They come and go, and are gen- 
erally so near the water's edge that it is compara- 
tively easy to keep away from them. These pests, 
as well as all mosquitoes, gnats, and air-flies, may be 



PESTS. 225 

kept at bay with smoldering fires, popularly kiio\vn 
in Florida as smudge- fires, built and burned to 
windward of the spot to be protected. Materials of 
pleasant-odored smoke abound everywhere, and a 
spoonful of insect-powder will insure the desired 
effect. 

Reptiles. — There are three kinds of snakes in 
Florida that are poisonous — the rattlesnake, the 
moccasins, and the adders, there being two varieties 
of the moccasin and two of the adder. These all, 
especially the rattlesnake, flee from man ; and years 
of life in Florida have been passed without ever 
hearing of a case of bite from any of these snakes. 
The habitat of these reptiles is the jungle, the 
swamp, and the thicket, places that it is rarely neces- 
sary to visit. The hunter and the fisherman will 
naturally provide themselves with protection against 
such dangers, and deserve to be bit if they do not. 

There are several snakes that are wholly innocu- 
ous — the king-snake, the bull or gopher snake, the 
ordinary black-snake, the coach- whip, the ground- 
snake, and indeed all except the rattlesnake, the 
moccasin, and the adder. 

Frogs, toads, and the like, serve their several 
useful purposes, as they do elsewhere, and should 
be protected and cultivated intelligently. 
15 



226 THE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY, 

Land-Sharks. — It is difficult to classify these 
pests, as thev are not strictly insects, nor reptiles, in 
the herpetological sense of that word. They must 
be tolerably known to the intelligent reading public 
of to-day ; although, like Proteus, they assume new 
shapes with wonderful facility. 

The boomer is one variety of these sharks. He 
has a wonderful vocabulary of adjectives, both laud- 
atory and abusive ; the former for his one little 
Eden where his lands are to sell, and the latter for 
everywhere, everything, and everybody else. 

The paper-town shark is one of the most recent 
evolutions. He is multiform and irrepressible ; and 
the public would better think twice before reading 
his wonderful "circular." The drop-game of the 
last generation, and the saw-dust trick of this, are 
neither of them so beautiful and attractive as this 
stupendous sell of Florida. While there may be 
honest and truthful boomers of the paper-town 
"' racket," and doubtless there are, the public needs 
a volume of admonition and advice ; and that vol- 
ume is faithfully condensed in the one word — Be- 

WAEE. 

As the tourist and prospector for a home in 
Florida goes on in his tour of inspection, he needs 
to weigh well the testimony he receives. If he do 



PESTS. 227 

not, lie is likely to settle in the first community lie 
interviews ; for every one of these seems to feel 
under obligation to belittle every other community 
that lies ahead ; and in this behttling there is too 
often a deal of belying. The traveler arrives at 
Jacksonville, and looks about him. He there is 
likely to get the impression that the civilization 
and refinement of the State center there ; and that 
every step into the interior is a step toward the 
backwoods and barbarity, discomfort, malaria, and 
general nothingness. His first step is into the St. 
John's Eiver region ; and there he is in like manner 
plied with the idea that he is in the center of prog- 
ress, culture, and happy exemption from all the ills 
that lie so heavy on the benighted lands to the 
southward. His next step is to Indian River ; and 
there he gathers in the comforting idea that he is in 
the genuine original center of civilization, where 
K'ature is at her best, where real progress is burst- 
ing out, and where there are none of those disgust- 
ing and discouraging drawbacks that curse all the 
land that lies south of that paradise — the subtropics 
of Lake Worth and Biscayne Bay, where there can 
be nothing but insects, vermin, mud, malaria, In- 
dians, desolation, abomination, discomfort, disease, 
black death, and poverty — where nothing will grow 



228 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

but comptie and mangroves, and where nobody lives 
anyhow. 

But the traveler should listen at Jacksonville, 
listen on the St. John's, listen on Indian Eiver, and 
listen in the subtropics. One disillusion ought to 
open his eyes. Generally it doesn't. But three or 
four disillusioniDgs will suffice for all, save the fool ; 
and he would better stay at home. 

This is not intended to mean that " all men are 
liars " ; but that the explorer is likely to encounter 
in any community enough of that entertaining class 
to give him just that set of ideas. It means more ; 
to wit, that that class of meddling romancers is just 
the one to hunt up, pursue, and persecute the tour- 
ist and stranger with theii* hoarded treasures of lies 
about the country. These misrepresenters are fully 
equipped with all the resources of their trade — the 
siippressio veri, the suggestio falsi, the innuendo, 
and the lie out of whole cloth. They are irrepress- 
ible, effusive, plausible, unescapable, intolerable. 
The Ancient Mariner was passivity itself in compar- 
ison with these. The tourist must hear them. Let 
him listen, and — go on. 



APPEE"DIX 



EAILWAY ROUTES. 

A. — FLOEIDA CENTEAL AND PENIXSULAE EAILEOAD. 

Cekteal Division. — Beginning at Fernandina, the Florida 
Central and Peninsular R. R. extends directly across the State 
to Cedar Keys, on the Gulf coast (154 miles), crossing at Cal- 
lahan the Savannah, Florida and Western R. R. (Waycross 
Branch). Baldwin, at the crossing of the Western Division 
from Jacksonville to Chattahoochee, is 47 miles from Fer- 
nandina, 20 from Jacksonville, and 107 from Cedar Keys. 
Waldo is 84 miles from Fernandina, at the junction of the 
Southern and Central Division. Gainesville (98 miles) is the 
principal town on the line of the road. It has 5,000 inhabit- 
ants, four churches, four hotels, and two newspapers. Cedar 
Keys is the Gulf terminus of the railway. From Cedar 
Keys a steamer sails on Mondays and Thursdays for Tarpon 
Springs, at the head of Anclote River, a voyage of eight 
hours. Eighteen miles west of Cedar Keys, the Suwanee 
River, navigable to Ellaville, enters the Gulf; and the Withla- 
coochee River, 18 miles south. 

SouTHEEN Division. — This division of the Florida Central 
and Peninsular R. R. diverges at Waldo in a direction nearly 
southeast, crossing at Hawthorne the track of the Florida 
Southern R. R. Citra and Anthony are passed on the way 
to Silver Spring junction, whence a branch two miles long 



230 THE FLORIDA OF TO-BAY. 

leads to Silver Springs. Sixteen miles south is the Lake 
Weir country, and 10 miles farther is Wildwood (whence a 
branch line runs to Leesburg), to Plant City, where connec- 
tion is made with the South Florida E. R. At Tavares (22 
miles from Wildwood) is the terminus of this division, where 
connections are made with Sanford, on the St. John's Eiver, 
and Orlando. 

Western Division. — From Baldwin this branch runs to 
the Chattahoochee River, River Junction being its western 
terminus. It passes through Olustee, Lake City, Live Oak 
(where it intersects the Florida branch of the Savannah, 
Florida and Western E. R.), Ellaville, Madison, Tallahassee, 
the capital, Quincy, and other towns. It connects at Chatta- 
hoochee River with the Louisville and Nashville R. R. for 
Pensacola and New Orleans. 

B. — JACKSONVILLE, TAMPA AND KEY WEST EAILEOAD. 

This line, starting from Jacksonville, follows the course of 
the St. John's River, passing through Orange Park, Magnolia, 
Green Cove Springs, Palatka, Seville, Astor Junction, De 
Land Junction, and Enterprise. The main line crosses the 
St. John's River by a bridge 3,500 feet long to the terminus 
at Sanford. The St. Augustine division connects Jackson- 
ville and St. Augustine by an air-line road of 36 miles. The 
De Land branch connects the main line, at De Land Junc- 
tion, v^ith De Land, a town of 3,000 inhabitants. The 
Indian River division extends from Enterprise Junction to 
Titusville, the largest town on Indian River. At Palatka the 
main line connects with the Florida Southern Railway for 
Gainesville, Ocala, Leesburg, Pemberton Ferry, and Brooks- 
ville. Connection is also made at Palatka with the St. John's 
and Halifax road for Ormond, Daytona, and Halifax River. 
At Orange Junction the main line connects with the Blue 
Springs, Orange City and Atlantic R. R. for Orange City, 
Lake Helen, New Smyrna, and Hillsborough River; at Mon- 



APPENDIX. 231 

roe with the Orange Belt R. E. for Oakland, Apopka, Brooks- 
ville to Point Phiellas, on the Gulf; at Sanford with the 
South Florida R. R. for Winter Park, Orlando, Kissimmee, 
Bartow, and Tampa, where are met the Cuban mail-steamers 
Olivette and Mascotte, of the Plant Line, for Key West and 
Havana. 

C. — SOCTTH FLOEIDA EAILEOAD. 

From Sanford this line passes Belair to Maitland, a colony 
of Northern families, and the rising resort, Winter Park, 
beautifully situated on Lake Osceola, live miles in circumfer- 
ence. Passing Orlando, with 3,500 inhabitants, the road 
reaches Kissimmee City, skirts Lake Tohopekaliga, and con- 
tinues through Lakeland and Plant City to Tampa. 

D. — FLOEIDA SOUTHEEN EAILEOAD. 

This line extends from Palatka, crossing the Florida Cen- 
tral and Peninsular R. R. at Hawthorne to Leesburg, where 
it connects with the St. John and Lake Eustis branch. From 
Leesburg it is continued to Pemberton Ferry, Lakeland, and 
Bartow, where it meets lines from Sanford, Orlando, and the 
St. John's River. From Bartow trains run to Punta Gorda, 
on Charlotte Harbor. 

RIVER ROUTES. 

THE ST. JOHX'S EIVEE. 

The town of Mayport — the quarantine post and anchorage 
of Jacksonville — lies on the left of the river at its mouth. 
Opposite is Pilot Town and St. George's Islani. Daily boats 
run from Jacksonville. 

Jacksonville is 21 miles from Mayport. At this point the 
St. John's, after flowing north for 300 miles, turns eastward 
and empties into the Atlantic. Its whole course, which lies 
through an extremely level region, is about 400 miles, and 
throughout the last 150 miles it is little more than a succes- 



232 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



sion of lakes, expanding in width from 1^ to 6 miles, and 
having at no point a width of less than one half mile. Its 
banks are lined with a luxuriant tropical vegetation, handsome 
shade-trees and orange-groves, and here and there are pict- 
uresque villages. The steamers of the Do Bary and People's 
Line leave Jacksonville daily at 3.30 p. m. for Sanford and 
Enterprise. Time, about eighteen hours ; fare, $4.50 ; round 
trip, $8. Eeturning, leave Sanford at 2.15 p. m., and reach 
Jacksonville next morning. Others make a daylight run, 
leaving Sanford at 5 a. m., and arriving at Jacksonville at 
6.10 p. M. The following is a list of places on the St. John's. 
The distances are from Jacksonville: 



Miles. 

Eiverside 3 

Black Point 10 

Mulberry Grove 11 

Mandarin 15 

Fruit Cove 18 

Hibernia 22 

Eemington Park 25 

Magnolia 28 

Green Cove Springs 81 

Hogarth's Landing 36 

Picolata 45 

Tocoi 52 

Federal Point 60 

Orange Mills 64 

Dancy's Wharf 65 

Whitestone 66 

Russell's Landing ... 69 

Palatka '75 

Rawlestown 77 

San Mateo 80 

Buffalo Bluff 88 

Satsuma 100 

Welaka - . . . 100 



Miles. 

Beecher 101 

Orange Point 103 

Mount Royal 109 

Fort Gates 110 

Georgetown 117 

Lake View 132 

Drayton Island 135 

Volusia 137 

Orange Bluff 140 

Hawkinsville 160 

De Land Landing 162 

Lake Breresford 165 

Blue Spring. 172 

Shell Bank 193 

Sanford 199 

Mellonville 200 

Enterprise 205 

Cook's Ferry and King Phil- 
ip's Town 224 

Lake Harney 225 

Sallie's Camp 229 

Salt Lake 270 



APPENDIX. 233 

Fourteen miles above, on the east bank, is Mandarin, one 
of the oldest settlements on the St. John's. It is the winter 
home of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Magnolia (28 miles), 
on the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West R. R., is situated 
on the west bank. A little to the north of the point Black 
Creek, a navigable stream, up which small steamers make 
weekly trips as far as Middleburg, empties into the St. John's. 
Three miles above Magnolia are the Green Cove Springs, oue 
of the most frequented resorts on the river, but now more 
easily reached by rail from Jacksonville. The spring dis- 
charges about 3,000 gallons a minute, and fills a pool some 
thirty feet in diameter with green ish-hued crystal clear water. 
The water has a temperature of 78° Fahr. ; contains sulphates 
of magnesia and lime, chlorides of sodium and iron, and sul- 
phureted hydrogen; is used both for bathing and drinking; 
and is considered beneficial for rheumatism, gouty affections, 
and Bright's disease of the kidneys. Attached to the springs 
are comfortable bathing-rooms, and close by are several hotels. 
About 10 miles above, on the same side, is Picolata, the site 
•of an old Spanish settlement, of which no traces now remain. 
Tocoi (52 miles) is of some importance as the point where 
connection is made with the St. John's Railroad to St. Au- 
gustine, 15 miles distant. Palatka occupies a fine, high pla- 
teau with a wide-reaching view up and down the river. It 
is the head of navigation for steamships, 75 miles from Jack- 
sonville by the river and 36 by railroad. It has railway 
connection with Gainesville and Ocala ma the Florida 
Southern R. R. It has a population of nearly 5,000. In 
the vicinity are many old, productive, and valuable orange- 
groves; and on the opposite side of the river, reached by 
ferry, are the famous groves of Colonel Hart. Palatka is 
steamboat headquarters for the upper St. John's and its 
tributaries. Steamers run from Palatka up the Ocklawaha 
River to Silver Spring, and a railroad — the St. Augustine 
and Palatka Railway — offers facilities for reaching the sea. 



234 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY, 

Above Palatka the vegetation becomes more characteristi- 
eallj tropical, and the river narrows down to a moderate- 
sized stream, widening out at last only to be merged in 
grand Lake George, Dexter's Lake, and Lake Monroe. The 
steamers make the run from Palatka to Sanford in about 
twelve hours. Welaka (25 miles above Palatka), above the 
entrance to Dunn's Lake, and opposite the mouth of the 
Ocklawaba Eiver, is the site of what was originally an 
Indian village, and afterward a flourishing Spanish settle- 
ment. Just above Welaka the river widens into Little 
Lake George, 4 miles wide and 7 miles long, and then 
into Lake George, 12' miles wide and 18 miles long, one of 
the most beautiful sheets of water in the world; many isl- 
ands dot its surface. It is 1,700 acres in extent, and con- 
tains one of the largest orange-groves on the river. Yolusia 
(5 miles above Lake George, 137 miles from Jacksonville) is 
a wood-station, with a settlement of considerable size back 
from the river. Thirty-five miles above Yolusia is Blue 
Spring, one of the largest mineral springs in the State. It is 
several hundred yards from the St. John's, but the stream 
flowing from the spring is large enough at its confluence with 
the river for the steamers to float in it. Pursuing its voyage 
to the south, the steamer speedily enters Lake Monroe, a 
sheet of water 12 miles long by 5 miles wide. On the south 
side of the lake is Sanford, the metropolis of South Florida, 
situated at the head of navigation for large steamers on the 
St. John's. On the opposite side of the lake from Sanford is 
Enterprise, a popular resort. 

xllthough Sanford is the head of large steamboat navigation 
on the St. John's, there is for the sportsman still another hun- 
dred miles of narrow river, deep lagoons, gloomy bayous, and 
wild, untrodden land, abounding in game, while the waters 
teem with fish. Small boats can be obtained to run during the 
winter through Lake Harney to Salt Lake, the nearest point 
to the Indian River from the St. John's; and a small steam- 



APPENDIX. 235 

boat makes frequent excursions througli Lake Jessup to Lake 
Harney. The trip to Lake Harney and back is made in twelve 
hours. Lake Jessup is near Lake Harney; it is 17 miles long 
and 5 miles wide, but it is so shallow that it can not be entered 
by a boat drawing more than three feet of water. The St. 
John's rises in the elevated savanna before mentioned, fully 
120 miles south of Enterprise, but tourists seldom ascend 
farther than Lake Harney. 

INDIAN EIVEE. 

From Titusville the steamer Rockledge makes daily con- 
nection for City Point, Merritt's Island, Cocoa, Eockledge, 
Eau Grallie, and Melbourne, whence connecting steamers con- 
tinue the trip to The Narrows, St. Lucie, Jupiter Inlet, and 
Lake Worth. (See pages 88-90.) 

THE OCKLAWAHA. 

The Ocklawaha boats start from Palatka at nine o'clock in 
the morning. The trip occupies all of one day and one night, 
and until an early breakfast-hour of the second day. The first 
three hours of the trip are occupied in going up the St. John's 
to Welaka, a point just opposite the mouth of the Ocklawaha. 
About midnight the boat passes through "The Gateway of the 
Ocklawaha," as it is called. This is formed by two immense 
cypress-trees, growing so close to each other that scarcely 
enough room is left to allow the boat to pass. About day- 
light the boat turns suddenly to the right, and the celebrated 
"Run" is entered. Here the stream becomes a river one 
hundred feet in widtli, and runs with a swift current, against 
which these diminutive steamers make laborious way for nine 
miles. The bottom is of white sand, and so transparent are 
its waters that mosses and grasses growing on the bottom, 
one hundred feet below, can be seen distinctly. At the end 
of the "Run" the boat crosses the "Silver Spring" and 
anchors at a wharf on its farther shore. A row-boat awaits 



236 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 

the tourist for the purpose of exploring the wonderful sprin< 
at leisure. (See page 101.) 



LIST OF HOTELS IN FLORIDA OPEl^^ AS WINTER 
RESORTS.* 

Altamont, Orange Co. : Altamont House, Frank A. Cofran, 

$3.50 to $4.00.t 
Belleview. Marion Co.: Hotel Sanitaria. 
Brooksville, Hernando Co. : Hernando Hotel, $2.50 to $3.00 ; 

Grand View Hotel, $3.00 to $2.50. 
Cedar Keys, Levy Co. : Suwannee Hotel, $2.50 to $4.00. 
Conant, Sumter Co. : Hotel Conant, $2.00 to $3.00. 
Crescent City, Putnam Co.: Grove Hall, $3,00; Putnam 

House, $3.00. 
Daytona, Volusia Co. : Ocean House, $2.50 to $3.00 ; Pal- 
metto Hotel, $2.00 to $2.50. 
De Funiak Springs, Walton Co. : Hotel Chautauqua, $2.00 to 

$3.00. 
De Land, Volusia Co. : Carrollton House, $2.50 to $3.00 ; 

Parceland Hotel, $2.50 to $3.00 ; Putnam House, $2.00 

to $3.00. 
De Leon Springs, Holmes Co.: De Soto House, $2.00 to 

$2.50. 
Eau Gallie, Brevard Co. : Eau Gallie House, $2.50. 
Enterprise, Volusia Co. : Brock House, $4.00. 
Eustis, Orange Co. : Eustis House, $2.50 to $3.00 ; Ocklawalia 

Hotel, $2.50. 
Fernandina, Nassau Co. : Egmont Hotel, $4.00. 
Fort Mason, Orange Co. : Lake View House, $2.50. 

* From the " United States (official) Hotel Directory and Railroad 
Indicator," known as the " Hotel Red-Book." Travelers' Publishing 
Company, New York. 

f Rates given are by the day. 



APPENDIX. 237 

Fort George, Duval Co. : Fort George TTotel. 

Gains ville, Alachua Co.: Arlington Hotel, $2.50 to $3.00; 
Eochemont House, $2.60 to $3.00. 

Gulf Hammock, Levy Co.: Gulf Hammock Hotel, $2.50 to 
$3.00. 

Green Cove Springs, Clay Co. : Clarendon Hotel, $4.00 ; St. 
Clare Hotel, $3.00 to $4.00; The Pines, $3.00; Morganza 
Hotel, $1.50 to $2.00. 

Interlachen, Putnam Co. : Hotel Lagonda ; Interlaclien Hotel, 
$3.00. 

Jacksonville, Duval Co.: The Everett, $4.00; St. James, 
$4.00; The Carleton, $3.00 to $4.00; The Duval, $3.00 
to $4.00; Hotel Oxford, $3.00; Hotel Togni, $3.00; Fre- 
mont House, $2.50 to $3.00; The Glenada, $2.50; Wind- 
sor Hotel. 

Eey West, Monroe Co. : St. James Hotel, $3.00 ; Kussell 
House, $2.50. 

Kissimmee, Orange Co. : Tropical Hotel, $3.00 to $4.00. 

Kismet, Orange Co. : Hotel Kismet. 

Lady Lake, Sumter Co. : Lady Lake House, $3.00. 

Lakeland, Polk Co. : Fremont House, $2.50 to $3.00. 

Lake Helen, Volusia Co. : Harlan Hotel, $2.00. 

Leesburg, Sumter Co.: Grand Central Hotel, $3.00; Lees- 
burg House, $2.00 to $2.50. 

Live Oak, Suwannee Co. : Ethel House, $2.00 to $2.50 ; Live- 
Oak Hotel, $2.00 to $2.50. 

Longwood, Orange Co. : Waltham Hotel. 

Madison, Madison Co. : Central Park Hotel, $3.00. 

Magnolia, Clay Co. : Magnolia Hotel, $4.00. 

Maitland, Orange Co. : Park House. 

Mayport, Duval Co. : Atlantic Hotel, $2.00 to $3.00. 

Monticello, Jefferson Co. : Madden House, $2.50 ; The Monti- 
cello. 

New Smyrna, Volusia Co. : Ocean House, $3.00. 

Oak Hill, Volusia Co.: Oak Hill Hotel, $4.00. 



238 THE FLORIDA OF TO-DA Y. 

Ocala, Marion Co. : Ocala House, $4.00 ; Aldred House, $2.50 

to $3.00 ; Montezuma Hotel, $2.50 to $3.00. 
Orange City, Volusia Co. : De Yarman House, $2.00. 
Orange Springs, Marion Co.: Globe Hotel, $2.50 to $3.00. 
Orlando, Orange Co. : Charleston House, $3.00 ; Magnolia 

House, $2.50 to $3.00; Wilcox House, $3.00; Windsor 

Hotel, $3.00. 
Pablo Beach, Duval Co. : Murray Hall Hotel, $3.00 to $4.00. 
Palatka, Putnam Co. : Putnam House, $4.00; Saratoga Hotel, 

$3.00 to $4.00 ; Hotel Phoenix, $3.00 ; Hotel Palatka, $2.50 

to $3.00 ; Graham House, $2.50 to $3.00. 
Pensacola, Escambia Co. : Continental Hotel, $3.00 to $4.00. 
Eavenswood, Orange Co. : Naylor House, $3.00. 
Rock Ledge, Brevard Co. : Hotel Indian River, $4.00 ; Tropi- 
cal House, $2.50 to $3.00. 
St. Augustine, St. John's Co. : Hotel San Marco, $4.00 ; Hotel 

Cordova; Magnolia Hotel, $3.00 to $4.00; Florida House, 

$3.50 to $4.00 ; Ponce de Leon Hotel ; Carleton House, 

$3.00. 
St. James City, Manatee Co. : San Carlos HoteL 
Sanford, Orange Co. : Sanford House, $4.00 ; San Leon Hotel, 

$2.00 to $2.50." 
Sarasota, Manatee Co. : N'ew Sarasota House, $2.50 to $3.50. 
Seville, Yolusia Co. : Grand View House ; Hotel Seville, $3.00. 
Silver Springs, Marion Co. : Silver Springs Hotel, $3.00. 
Spring Garden, Volusia Co. : Highland Park Hotel. 
South Lake Weir, Marion Co.: Lake Side Hotel, $2.50 to 

$3.00. 
Tallahassee, Leon Co. : New Leon Hotel, $4.00 ; St. James 

Hotel, $2.50 to $3.00. 
Tarpon Springs, Hillsborough Co. : Tarpon Springs Hotel. 
Tampa, Hillsborough Co. : The Plant Hotel, $4.00 ; Palmetto 

Hotel, $3.00 to $4.00; Orange Grove Hotel, $2.00 to 

$4.00 ; St. James Hotel, $2.00 to $3.00. 
Tangerine, Orange Co. : Wachusett House, $2.50 to $3.00. 



APPENDIX. 239 

Tavares, Orange Co. : Tavares Hotel, $2.50 to $3.50. 

Umatilla, Orange Co. : Umatilla House. 

Waldo, Alachua Co. : Waldo House, $2.00. 

Welaka, Putnam Co. : McClure House, $3.00. 

Wellborn, Suwannee Co. : White Sulphur Springs Hotel, 

$3.00. 
Welshton, Marion Co. : Hotel Welshtou. 
Winter Park, Orange Co. : Seminole House, $i.00. 



INDEX. 



Adelantado, 15, 67, 104. 
Africa, 166, 168. 
Africans, 112. 
Agassiz, 60. 

Agricultural College, 88, 128. 
Agricultural implements, 189, 
Aguacate, 51, 160. 
Akee, 168. 

Alabama, 84, 56, 61, 76. 
Alaminos, 8. 
Alaska, 110. 
Alcazar, 84, 86. 
Aleck Hajo, 24. 
Alexander & Co., 182. 
" Al Fresco," 209. 
Allen, Mr., 220. 
Alligator, 24. 
Alligators, 208. 
Alligator pear, 51, 160. 
Allison, Governor, 26. 
Almond, 51, 176. 
"American Cyclopsedia," 170. 
Ancient Mariner, 228. 
Anclote, 106. 
Andes, 163. 

Anonas, 51, 154, 162-164. 
Cherimolia, 163, 
16 



A.nonas, Glabra, 164. 

Muricata, 51, 162. 

Reticulata, 164. 

Squamosa, 163. 
Appalachian Mountains, 62. 
Appalachicola, 100. 
Apples, 176. 
Arkansas, 23, 56, 61, 76. 
Arpeika, 24. 
Asiatics, 112. 
As-se-se-ha-ho-lar, 24. 
Assinwar, 25. 
Atlantic City, 40. 
Atlantic-islanders, 112. 
Atzeroth, Mrs., 175. 
Augusta, 40. 
Australians, 112. 
Austria, 112. 
Avocado pear, 51, 160. 

Bahamas, 17, 44, 77, 95. 
Baldwin, Dr., 33, 35, 39, 62. 
Bananas, 51, 148, 150. 
Barbour, Mr., 194. 
Bar Harbor, 74. 
Barley, 195. 
Barrancas, Fort, 14, 99. 



242 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



Basinger, Lieutenant, 20. 
Baskets, 189. 
Baths, 86. 
Baugh, Mr., 150. 
Bays, 8, 9, 61, 91. 

Big Sarasota, 61. 

Biscayne, 91. 

Clear Water, 8, 9. 

Little Sarasota, 61. 
Bayou Grande, 99. 
Bears, 220. 
Bees, 204. 
Belgium, 112. 
Belknap, General, 21. 
Bellevue, 98. 
Bermuda, 196. 
Big Chief, 124. 
Big Water, 29. 
Billy Bowlegs, 24. 
Bimini, Isle of, 7. 
Birds, 220. 
Biscayne, 20V. 
Bismarck, 40. 
Black Dirt, 24. 
Black Drink, 24. 
Blodget, Dr., 52. 
Bloxham, Governor, 26, 27. 
Blue Springs, 81. 
Bohemia, 112. 
Boia,ca, 7. 

Boomer's land, 226. 
Bordighera, 166. 
Bosporus, 77. 
Boston, 40, 73, 74. 
Bourbons, 109. 
Bowlegs, Billy, 24-. 



Branch, Governor, 18. 
Bread-fruit, 139. 
Breckenridge, Minn., 40. 
British America, 112. 
Broken health, 57. 
Brooke, Sir Philip, 45. 
Brooksville, 80. 
Broome, Governor, 25. 
Broom-handles, 189. 
Brown, Governor, 25. 
Budd, Professor, 135. 
Building- woods, 189. 

Cabinet-woods, 189. 

Cacao, 170. 

California, 29, 34, 55, 76, 135. 

Call, Governor, 18. 

Caloosahatchee River, 32, 43, 01, 

70, 94, 102, 104. 
" Camping and Cruising in Flori- 
da," 220. 
Canada, 72, 210. 
Canaveral, Cape, 42, 131. 
Canes, woods for, 189. 
Capes : 

Canaveral, 42, 131, 

Florida, 74, 94. 

Hatteras, 46. 

May, 74, 81. • 

Romano, 42. 

Sable, 61, 96. 
Caribbee Islands, 160. 
Carolina, 14, 15. 
Cassava, 203. 
Cattle, 194. 

" Cattle-Fields of the Far West," 
195. 



IXDEX. 



213 



Catticy guava, 50. 

Cautio, 7, 20, 82. 

Cedar Keys, 42, 67, 80, 93, 98, 

187. 
Central America, 112, 158, 170. 
Ceres, 119. 
Cession, 15, 17. 
Charleston, 73. 
Charles Town, 14. 
Charlotte Harbor, 32, 42, 80. 
Chattahoochee River, 76. 
Cherimoyer, 51. 
Chicago, 75. 
China, 112. 
Chipley, W. D., 201. 
Chipco, 124. 
Chitto-Tustenuggee, 24. 
Chukaluskee, 42. 
Cincinnati, 75. 
Citrus fruits, 130, 136, 140. 
Citrus Japonica, 136. 
City Point, 203. 
Clarke, S. C, 209. 
Clays, 6i. 

Clear Water Bay, 8, 9. 
Climate, 33, 43, 48, 49, 52, 57. 
Climate-cure, 52. 
Climatology, 52. 
Clinch, General, 21. 
Cloete, W. Broderick, 197. 
Coacoochee, 21, 23, 24. 
Coahuila, 197. 
Coal, 65. 

Cocoanuts, 51, 96, 141. 
Cocoanut-groves, 142, 143. 
Coffee, 175. 
College, Agricultural, 88, 128. 



College, City, 35. 

Normal, 129. 

Rollins, 129. 

State, 64. 
Colorado, 34, 211. 
Comptic, 203. 
Conchs, 95. 
Concrete, 67. 
Confederate States, 26. 
Connecticut, 34, 66. 
Consumption, 55, 56. 
Contini, C. G., 183. 
Cooperage-woods, 189. 
Coquina, 66. 
Coralline, 67. 
Corals, 208. 
Cordova, Hotel, 87. 
Corn, 194. 
Cotton, 182. 
Cowford, 77. 
Cows crossing over, 77. 
Creeks, 25, 117. 
Crescent Lake, 31. 
Crosby, 0. M., HI, 113. 
Cuba, 8, 9, 16, 63, 95, 112, 113, 

180. 
Curtiss, A. H., 42, 187, 193, 
Custard-apple, 51, 164. 

Dade, Major, 19, 21. 
Dade massacre, 19. 
! " Daily Union," 116. 
Dakota, 34, 76. 
D'Arriola, 14. 
Date-palm, 164. 
Date-plum, 168. 
Davis, Mr., 141. 



2U 



THE FLO BID A OF TO-DAY. 



Davis, John, 14. 

Daytona, 42. 

Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute, 

128. 
Death-rate, 55, 
De Bary, 81. 
De Cordova, 8. 
Deer, 217. 
De Funiak Lake, 81. 
De Funiak Springs, 129. 
De Gourges, 13. 
De Land, 80, 129. 
De Land University, 129. 
Delaware, 56. 
De Leon, Ponce, 7, 8, 20, 67, 84, 

104. 
De Luna, 11. 
Demerara, 171. 
De Narvaez, 8. 
Denison, Dr., 52, 
Denmark, 112. 
Dennett, Colonel, 197. 
De Ortiz, Juan, 9. 
De Reinoro, 97. 
De Soto, 9, 10. 
De Vaca, Cabe9a, 9, 10. 
Dimiek, E. N., 139. 
Discoveries, 7. 
Divisions, 41. 
Down South, 82. 
Drainage, 54, 69, 192. 
Drake, Sir Francis, 18. 
Drew, Governor, 26, 27. 
Dry Tortugas, 32. 
Dubois, E., 152. 
Ducks, wild, 219. 
Duluth, 40. 



Dummitt Grove, 131. 

Duncan, Sir William, 16. 

Dunedin, 106, 107. 

Dunn Brothers' grove, 133. 

Durian, 171. 

Dustins, 18. 

Duval, Governor, 18. 

Easter-Sunday, 7, 20. 

East Florida Seminary, 128. 

East India, 173. 

Eaton, Governor, 18. 

Eau Gallic, 88. 

Eden, 90, 147. 

Education, 127. 

Egypt, 84. 

El Dorado, 8, 9. 

Emathla, 24. 

England, 59, 112. 

Engravers' blocks, 190, 

Enterprise, 81. 

Eocene, 60, 61. 

EsjDiritu Santo, 9. 

Eustis Lake, 81. 

Evans, James, 143. 

Everglades, 30, 31, 47, 53, 69, 71, 

93, 94, 96, 117. 
Excursions, 81. 
Exposition, subtropical, 77, 79. 

Facts about Florida, 201. 

Fairbanks, 7, 18, 19. 

Fall Brook, 35. 

Fencing, timbers for, 190. 

Fernandina, 32, 42, 45, 72, 73, 

94. 
Field & Osborne, 143. 



INDEX. 



245 



Figs, 50, 175. 
Firminger, 157. 
Fish business, 205. 
Fishes, 210, 212, 215. 
Fishing, 209. 
Fishing- grounds, 215. 
Fishing-tackle, 216. 
Flint-rock, 66. 
Floats, 190. 
Flooring, 190. 
Florida facts, 113. 
Florida for tourists, 194. 
Florida Fruit Exchange, 131. 
Florida University, 128. 
Formosa, Island of, 47. 
Fort Barrancas, 14, 99. 

Carlos, 14. 

Caroline, 11-13. 

George Island, 87. 

Marion, 84. 

Myers, 70, 104, 143, 144. 

Pickens, 15, 99. 

St. Luis, 98. 

San Marco, 67, 82, 83. 

San Mateo, 13, 
Fossils, 59. 

Fountain of Youth, 67. 
France, 11, 59, 112, 113, 152, 

184. 
Franceses, 12. 
Fruit Exchange^ 131. 
Fruits, 49, 51, 136, 154, 167, 169, 

172. 
Fruits, semi-tropical, 48, 49. 
Fruits, subtropical, 50, 200. 
Fuel, 190. 
Furniture- woods, 189. 



Gainesville, 128. 

Galesio, 141. 

Game, 91, 217, 220. 

Gardening, 199. 

Gardening in Florida, 151. 

Garey, Mr., 141. 

Geography, 28. 

Geology, 59. 

George, Lake, 31. 

Georgia, 15, 34, 56, 75, 151, 166, 

182, 193. 
Germany, 112. 
Gleason, 88. 
Goats, 196. 
Gonzales, F. A., 180. 
Gopher, 207. 
Gosse, Mr., 162. 
Governors, 25, 26. 
Grains, 194, 195. 
Grampus, 222. 
Grand possibilities, 154. 
Grant, James, 16. 
Grape-fruit, 50. 
Grapes, 49, 152. 
Great Britain, 15-17. 
Great Father at Washington, 22. 
Greece, 112. 
Greeks, 16. 

Green Cove Springs, 87. 
Groves. See Cocoanuts and Ok- 

ANGES. 

Guanabena, 51, 162. 

Guavas, 50, 51, 155, 156. 

Gulf of Mexico, 44, 70, 80, 98, 

102. 
Gulf Stream, 44, 46, 47, 60, 62, 

63, 90, 93, 96. 



246 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



Gun-stocks, 190. 
Guayaquil, 163. 

Uaenke, 163. 
Halifax River, 82. 
Halleck-Tustenuggee, 24, 
Hammocks, 69. 
Hampton Spriogs, 68. 
Hardy, Lady, 82. 
Harris, J. A., 132. 
Hart, Governor, 26. 
Hart Grove, 133. 
Hart wig, 169. 
Hatteras, 46. 
Havana, 16. 
Health, 52, 71. 
Heilprin, 60. 
Helen Harcourt, 141. 
Henry, Professor, 37. 
Hensball, Dr., 94, 211, 

220. 
Hickey, John B., 70. 
Hillsborough River, 32, 81. 
Hirrihigua, 9. 
History, 7. 
Hogs, 198. 
Holatter Micco, 25. 
Ho-le-wa-gus, 123. 
Holland, 112. 
Homosassa River, 32, 104, 
Honduras, 169. 
Honey, 204. 
Horsch, Mr., 147. 
Horses, 198. 
Hospetarkee, 24. 
Hotel Cordova, 87. 
Huguenots, 11-13. 



219, 



Humboldt, 151. 
Humidity, 35, 40. 
Hunting, 217. 

Idaho, 34. 

Ilhnois, 34, 56. 

Immigrants, Northern and for- 

eign, 110. 
Immigrants, Southern, 1€9. 
Immigration Association, 79. 
Incah, 123. 

India, 112, 157, 166, 168. 
Indiana, 56. 
Indianapolis, 75. 
Indian Archipelago, 163. 
Indian River, 82, 80, 88, 90, 131, 

133. 
Indian River Inlet, 43, 45, 46. 
Indians, 117. See Seminole. 
Industrial features, 63. 
Insects, 223, 224. 
Institute for Deaf, etc., 128. 
Interior finish, 190. 
Iowa, 56, 76. 
Ireland, 112. 
Iron-ore, 64, 
Islands, 31. 

Amelia, 32. 

Anastasia, 32. 

Cumberland, 166, 

Dry Tortugas, 82, 

Formosa, 47. 

Key Largo, 32. 

Key West, 32. 

Merritt's, 35. 

Santa Rosa, 15, 81, 32. 

Ten Thousand, 32. 



INDEX. 



247 



Italy, 112, 113, 166, 184. 
Iv^es, A. M., 131. 



Kraemer, James il., 53. 
Kumquat, 136. 
Kurunda, 172. 



Jacques, Dr., 52. 








Jack-fruit, 1*72. 






Lake City, 128. 


Jackson, General, 17, 18, 


21, 


124. 


Lake regions, 50, 


Jacksonville, 34, 40, 73, 


76 


V8, 


Lakes, 29-194. 


80, 82, 87, 90, 92, 96, 


99, 


116. 


Apopka, 31. 


Jamaica, 160, 161, 163. 






Buffum, 31. 


Japan persimmon, 168. 






Crescent, 31. 


Japan plum, 49. 






De Funiak, 31. 


Jay, Hamilton, 116. 






East Tohopekaliga, 69. 


Johnson, Dr., 52. 






Eustis, 31. 


Jujube, 50, 176. 






Fresh Water, 91. 


Jumper, 24. 






George, 31. 


Jupiter Inlet, 45, 46, 88 


,90 


,93, 


Harris, 101. 


95, 142. 






lamonia, 31. 


Jute, 183. 






Istokroga, 31. 
Kissimmee, 30, 31. 


Kansas, 34, 56, 76. 






Miccasukee, 31. 


Kaolin, 64. 






Monroe, 31. 


Keiffer pear, 49. 






Okeechobee, 29, 69, 94, 96, 102, 


Kentucky, 56. 






192. 


Kenworthy, C. J., 40, 52, 


57, 


135, 


Orange, 31, 132. 


209, 215. 






Santa Fe, 31. 


Key Largo, 31, 32. 






Tohopokaliga, 31. 


Keys, 32, 43, 161. 






Worth, 42, 71, 90, 92, ^Q, 143, 


Key West, 32, 35, 40, 74, 


91, 


104, 


162, 175, 194. 


144,162,166, 176, 181, 


205, 


Land-sharks, 105, 226, 


207. 






Laudonniere, 10, 11. 


Kingsley, 169. 






Lawson, Dr., 52, 54. 


Kissimmee, 30, 94, 104, 






Le Conte, Dr., 52. 


Kissimmee Lake, 30, 31. 






Leesburg, 101. 


Kissimmee Eiver, 32, 94. 






Lemons, 50, 136. 


Knight, Mr., 147. 






Lente, Dr., 52, 


Knight, P. 0., 195. 






\ Levers, 190. 


Kost, Dr., 59, 63, 65, 68. 






! Lichee, 173. 



248 



THE FLO BID A OF TO-DAY. 



Lignite, 65. 

Limes, 50, 51, 140, 167. 

Liraona, 35. 

Linngeus, 1*70. 

Locke, E. 0., 142. 

Logan, Dr., 52. 

Lombardy, 183. 

London, 148. 

Long Branch, 74, 81. 

Los Angeles, 35. 

Louisiana, 15, 17, 29, 34, 56, 61, 

76, 197. 
Lowe, John, 142, 
Lumber, 186. 
Luteranos, 12. 
Luxemburg, 112. 

Macomb, General, 21. 

McRae, Miss, 18. 

Magnolia, 87. 

Magnolia Hotel, 87. 

Maine, 56. 

Malaria, 52, 71. 

Malay, 171. 

Mamey, 160. 

" Mammals and Winter Birds of 

East Florida," 220. 
Mammee, 51, 159. 
Mammee sapota, 160. 
Manatee, 50, 166, 176. 
Manatee, 221. 
Manatee River, 60. 
Mandarin, 87, 178. 
Mango, 51, 157. 
Mangosteen, 51, 159. 
Mannville, Mr., 141. 
Marble, 66. 



Mariana, 65. 

Mariannes, 9. 

Marietta, 209. 

Marl, 64. 

Marmalade-tree, 160. 

Martin, M., 153. 

Marvin, Governor, 26. 

Maryland, 56. 

Massachusetts, 31, 56, 211. 

Massacre, Dade, 19. 

Mastodons, 59. 

Matanzas, 12. 

Matthews grove, 133. 

Mayport, 80, 87. 

May River, 11, 87. 

Medicinal barks, 191. 

Mediterranean, 40. 

Melbourne, 88. 

Menendez, 10, 12, 18, 97. 

Mentone, 40. 

Merritt's Island, 35. 

Mexico, 9, 10, 76, 77, 112, 151, 

197. 
Mexico, Gulf of, 63. 
Miami, 71, 92, 93, 96, 144. 
Miami River, 121. 
Micanopy, 24. 
Miccasukee Lake, 31. 
Micco, 24. 

Miccosukees, 25, ll7o 
Michigan, 56. 
Millview, 80. 
Milton, Governor, 25. 
Mineral waters, 67. 
Minnesota, 56, 76. 
Minorcans, 16. 
Miocene, 60, 61. 



INDEX. 



219 



Miruelo, 8. 

Mississippi, 34, 56, 61, 76. 

Mississippi River, 9, 10, 14, 2f 

44, 62. 
Missouri, 56. 
Monroe, 81. 
Montana, 34. 
Montiano, 15. 
Moore, Mr., 141. 
Moore, Governor, 14, 
Morphia, 204. 
Morus alba, 184. 
Morns Japonica, 184. 
Morus multicaulis, 184. 
Moseley, Governor, 25. 
Mosquitoes, 223. 
Moss, long, 46, 47, 52. 
Mounds, 104, 105. 
Mountain, Table, 29. 
Mount Whitney, 29. 
Mulberry, 184. 
Murat, 98. 
Murietta, 35. 
Murray Hall, 81. 
Muscogees, 117. 

Naples, King of, 98. 

Narrows, The, 90. 

Nassau, 40. 

Nebraska, 34, 76. 

Nceld, Mr., 157. 

Negroes, 19, 113. 

New England, 18, 19, 28, 72. 

New Hampshire, 56. 

New Jersey, 56. 

New Orleans, 21, 76. 

New Mexico, 55. 



Newport, 74. 

Newport Springs, 68. 

New Smyrna, 16. 

New York, 34, 56, 72, 73, 75. 

Normal College, 129. 

Norris, J. Hart, 133. 

North Carolina, 56, 193. 

Northern Florida, 29, 42, 46, 145. 

Norway, 112. 

Nutmeg, 174. 

Oars, woods for, 191. 

Oats, 195. 

Ocean Grove, 81. 

Ocean routes, 72, 73. 

Ocilla River, 32. 

Ocklawaha River, 32, 100, 101. 

Oeklokonee River, 32. 

Oglethorpe, Governor, 15. 

Ohio, 34, 56. 

Okeechobee drainage, 54, 69, 192. 

Okeechobee Lake, 29, 30, 31, 69, 

94, 96, 102, 192. 
Old xYleck, 124, 125. 
Old residents, 108. 
Oligocene, 61. 
Olives, 175. 
Olustec, 71. 
Opium, 203. 

OrangeBelt,43,134, 135, 145, 152. 
Orange-culture, 135. 
Orange-culture iu California, 135. 
Orange-culture in Florida, 135. 
Orange-groves, 131-133. 
Orange Lake, 31, 132. 
Orange Park, 87. 
Orange-quince, 176. 



250 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



Oregon, 34, 76. 
Orlando, 101. 
Osborne, Field &, 143. 
Osceola, 24, 125. 
Otulkee, 24. 
Otulko-Thlocko, 25. 
Overland routes, 73. 
Oxford, 11. 

Ox-yokes, woods for, 191. 
Oysters, 205. 

Pablo Beach, 74, 80, 81. 
Palatka, 80, 101. 
Paleontology, 59. 
Palmer, Dr., 62. 
Palm-Sunday, 1. 
Panthers, 220. 
Papaw, 173. 
Paper-pulp, 191. 
Paper towns, 226. 
Paris, 59, 163, 207. 
Pascoffer, 24. 
Pascua Florida, 7. 
Peace River, 32. 
Peach, 175. 

Honey, 175. 

Peen-To, 175. 
Pears, 151. 
Pecan, 176. 
Peen-To peach, 175. 
Pemberton Ferry, 80, 
Pencil- wood, 191. 
Pennsylvania, 56. 
Pensacola, 14, 15, 17, 80, 99, 201. 
Peoples, 108. 
People's Line, 81, 



Perry, Governor E. A., 26, 27. 
Perry, Governor Madison, 25. 
Peru, 163. 
Pests, 223. 
Philadelphia, 73. 
Pickel, Professor, 64. 
Piles, 191. 

Pineapples, 144-146. 
Pinellas, 106, 107, 157. 
Pistachio-nut, 177. 
Plant System, 80. 
Pleiocene, 60. 
Pleistocene, 60. 
Pocahontas, 9. 
Poland, 112. 
Polynesia, 169. 
Pomegranate, 50, 167. 
Ponce de Leon Hotel, 84. 
Poppy, 203. 
Population, 108. 
Port Royal, 11. 
Post-tertiary, 60. 
Poultry, 198, 199. 
Poway, 35. 
Powhatan, 9. 
Productions, 130. 
Pullman cars, 74, 75. 
Punta Gorda, 80, 93, 94, 9& 
Punta Rassa, 40, 104. 

Quinces, 176. 

Railway-ties, 191. 
Railway Routes, 229, 
Ramie, 186. 

Reasoner Brothers, 49, 50, 145, 
158, 162, 163, 166, 176. 



IXDEX. 



251 



Heconstructlon, 26, 
Red Bluff, 35. 
Reed, Governor, 18, 20, 26. 
Renaissance, Spanish, 84. 
Reptiles, 225. 
Restoration, 26. 
Retrocession, 17. 
Revolution, American, 16. 
Rhode Island, 56. 
Ribault, 11, 12. 
Rice, 192. 
Richards, Mr., 147. 
Rio d'Ais, 88. 
Rio Carabelle, 207. 
Rio Grande, 10, 14. 
Rivers, 10-134. 

Alafia, 32. 

Appalachicola, 32. 

Ashley, 14, 63. 

Caloosahatchee, 32, 61, 70, 94, 
101, 143. 

Chattahoochee, 76. 

Chipola, 32. 

Cooper, 63. 

Hillsborough, 32, 81. 

Horaosassa, 32, 104. 

Kissimmee, 32, 94. 

Manatee, 32, 60, 175. 

May, 11, 87. 

Miami, 32, 121. 

Mississippi, 9, 10, 14, 28, 44, 62. 

Ocilla, 32. 

Ocklawaha, 32, 100, 101, 235. 

Ocklokonee, 32. 

Peace, 32. 

St. John's, 10, 11, 30, 32, 46, 
81, 87, 101, 134, 231. 



Rivers, St. Mark's, 32, 68. 
St. Mary's, 31, 32, 42. 
Sebastian, 147, 150. 
j Suwannee, 32, 102, 103, 108. 
I Wakulla, 32, 100. 

Withlacoochee, 32, 80. 

Rock Ledge, 74, 88. 

Rocky Mountains, 61. 

Rogel, Padre, 97. 

Rollers and bearings of machin- 
ery, 191. 

Rollins College, 129. 

Roman baths, 86. 

Romano, Cape, 42. 

Routes, ocean, 72. 

Routes, overland, 73. 

Russell, A. J., 127. 

Russia, 112. 

Russian baths, 86. 

Rye, 195. 

Sacramento, 35. 

Saddle-trees, 191. 

Sahara, 38. 

St. Augustine, 7, 10, 13, 18, 35, 

67, 74, 80, 82, 87, 97, 128. 
St. John's BlufiP, 11. 
St. Louis, 76. 
St. Luis, Fort, 98. 
St. Lucie, 42, 90. 
St. Mark's, 15. 
St. Paul, 40, 75. 
Sam Jones, 24. 
Sand-lands, 68, 146. 
Sandstone, 66. 

Sandford, 35, 81, 101, 123, 137. 
Sandwich-Islanders, 112. 



252 



TEE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



San Marco, 67, 82, 83. 

San Marco Hotel, 8*7. 

San Mateo, 12. 

Santa Fe Lake, 31. 

Santa Maria, 11. 

Santa Rosa Island, 15, 31, 32. 

Sapodilla, 51, 161. 

Sapote, 161. 

Sarasota, 74. 

Saratoga, '74. 

Savannah, 73, 75. 

Schools, 127. 

Scotland, 112. 

Sebastian River, 147, 150. 

Secession, 26. 

Secoflfee, 24, 117. 

Seeman, Dr., 163. 

Seminoles, 17, 21, 24, 104, 107, 

117, 123, 125. 
Seminole wars, 18, 25, 104. 
Semi-tropical Florida, 29, 43, 45, 

50, 101, 134. 
Settlement, 12. 
Sharks, land, 226. 
Sheep, 196. 
Shells, 208. 

Shenandoah Valley, 75. 
Shingles, 191. 

Ship- and boat-building, 191. 
Shoe-lasts, 191. 
Shuttles, 191. 
Silk, 183. 
Silver Spring, 100. 
Silver Spring Run, 100. 
Sisal hemp, 186. 
Slavery, 108, 113, 114, 
Smith, John, 9. 



Smithsonian Reports, 107. 

Snakes, 225. 

Soils, 68. 

South America, 77, 112, 113. 

South Carolina, 10, 11, 14, 56, 

182, 193. 
Spain, 15-17, 112. 
Spaulding, 141. 
Spanish Main, 13. 
Spear grove, 133. 
Spencer, Mr., 175. 
Sponges, 207. 
Sporting, 209. 
Sprague, Captain, 25. 
Spratt grove, 132. 
Spring Garden, 133. 
Springs, 68, 129. 

Blue, SO, 81. 

De Funiak, 129. 

Green Cove, 68, 87. 

Hampton, 68. 

Newport, 68. 

Silver, 30, 100. 

Suwannee, 68. 

Tarpon, 74, 81. 

Wakulla, 100, 101. 

White Sulphur, 68. 
State, 25. 
State College, 64. 
State Governors, 25. 
Stearns, Governor, 26. 
Strawberries, 77, 178. 
Subtropical Florida, 29, 43, 46, 
48, 50, 69, 93, 117, 154, 
159. 
Sugar, 193. 
Sugar-apple, 51, 163. 





INDEX, 


Suwannee River, 32, 42, TG, 


102, 


Tohopokaliga Lake, 31. 


105. 




Tool-handles, 92. 


Swamps, 69. 




Tornadoes, 58. 


Sweden, 112. 




Trade-winds, 47. 


Switzerland, 112. 




Travel, 72. 
Turban, 120. 


Table Mountain, 29. 




Turkeys, wild, 219. 


Tago, 97. 




Turkish baths, 86. 


Tait, J. Selwin, 195. 




TurnbuU, Dr., 16. 


Tallahassee, 18, 24, 97, 116, 


128, 


Turtle-eggs, 206. 


152, 201. 




Turtles, 206. 


Tallahassees, 25. 




Tyndall, Professor, 38, 39 


Tamarind, 51, 166. 






Tampa, 60, 74, 80, 97, 106. 




Van Deman, E. B., 80. 


Tampa Bay, 9, 10, 21. 




Varnadoe, Captain, 152. 


Tan-bark, 192. 




Vegetables, 200. 


Tanyah, 202. 




Vegetables, yields of, 202 


Tavares, 80, 101. 




Vera Cruz, 11. 


Tea, 175. 




Vermont, 56. 


Temperature, 33. 




Vestibuled cars, 74. 



25 3 



Ten Thousand Islands, 32. 
Territorial Governors, 18. 
Territory, 17, 18. 
Tertiary, 59-61. 
Texas, 55, 56, 61, 76, 198. 
" Texas Stockman," 198. 
Thames, 59. 
Theobroma, 170. 
Thomasville, 76, 152. 
Tiger-Tail, 24. 
Ti-es, 51. 

Titusvilie, 80, 8S, 96. 
Tobacco, 178. 
Tobacco-boxes, 192. 
Tobacco Company, 179. 
Tocoi, 80. 



Virginia, 14, 43, 56, 75. 
Von Miiller, 166. 
Vuelta Abajo, 180. 

Wacca Palatka, 77. 
Wadddl, James A., 143. 
Wagons and carriages, 193. 
Wakulla Springs, 100, 101. 
Waldo, 134, 175. 
Wales, 112. 
Walker, Governor, 26. 
Washington, 21. 
Washington talk, 124. 
Waycross, 73, 76. 
Way Key, 98. 
Weather Bureau, 33. 
Wee-la-ka, SO. 



254 



THE FLORIDA OF TO-DAY. 



West Florida Seminary, 12S. 

West Indies, VV, 98, 160, 169, 171- 

West Virginia, 34, 56. 

Wheat, 195. 

Wheel-stock, 192. 

White, J. B., 211. 

Whitner, Professor, 151, 163, 

169, 173, 175, 202. 
Whitney, Mount, 29. 
Wigwam, 118. 
Wild eats, 24, 220. 
Williams, 18. 

Williams and Warren, 143. 
Wilson, agent, 124. 
Wilson, Dr., 52. 
Wines, 152, 153. 



Winter Park, 129. 
Winthrop, W. W., 203. 
Wisconsin, 56. 
Withlacoochee River, 32, 80. 
Wooden shoes, 192. 
Woodenware, 192. 
Worth, General, 21, 23, 97. 
Worth, Lake, 42, 194. 
Wy-o-mee, 119, 123. 

Yack-fruit, 172. 
Yankee settlers, 112. 
Yields of vegetables, 202. 
Youth, Fountain of Perpetual, 

67. 
Yucca, 186. 



THE END. 



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